IN 


Chester  Harvey  Rowell 


INGERSOLLISM. 


INGERSOLLISM 

FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW. 

A  LECTURE 

•  > 

DELIVERED    IN 

ASSOCIATION    HALL,   NEW  YORK;    MUSIC   HALL,  BOSTON;    IN    PHILA- 
DELPHIA,   CHICAGO,    ST.  LOUIS,    AND    IN    OVER    SIX    HUN- 
DRED  OF  THE   PRINCIPAL  LECTURE   COURSES   OF 
THE   UNITED    STATES   AND   CANADA. 

BY 

GEORGE   R.  WENDLING. 


There  is  more  power  for  the  public  safety  in  the  whispered  utter- 
ances of  a  God-fearing  priest  or  preacher  than  in  all  your  batteries 
and  iron-dads. 


CHICAGO: 

JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  COMPANY. 
1883. 


COPYRIGHT, 

BY  JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  CO. 
A.D.   1882. 


KHISHT    Sc  MSOKAH.D  7\ 


DEDICATED 

TO 

JOSEPHINE  E.  WENDLING, 

THE   QUEEN   OF   MY   HOME, 
A  PERFECT  WIFE  AND  A  PERFECT  MOTHER. 


—  I  am  not  a  sad  man.  Spite  of  the  experience  of  life  —  some- 
what bitter — I  am  a  cheerful,  and  joyous,  and  happy  man.  But 
take  away  my  consciousness  of  God ;  let  me  believe  there  is  no 
Infinite  God  ;  no  infinite  mind  which  thought  the  world  into  exist- 
ence and  thinks  it  into  continuance  ;  no  infinite  Conscience  which 
everlastingly  enacts  the  eternal  laws  of  the  universe ;  no  infinite 
Affection  which  loves  the  world  ;  loves  Abel  and  Cain  —  loves  the 
drunkard's  wife  and  the  drunkard  ;  the  Mayors  and  Aldermen  who 
made  the  drunkard ;  which  loves  the  victim  of  the  tyrant,  and 
loves  the  tyrant ;  loves  the  slave  and  his  master ;  loves  the  mur- 
dered and  the  murderer ;  the  fugitive  and  the  kidnapper ;  that 
there  is  no  God  who  wratches  over  the  nation,  but  "forsaken 
Israel  wanders  lone "  ;  that  the  sad  people  of  Europe,  Africa, 
America,  have  no  guardian — then  I  should  be  sadder  than  Egyp- 
tian night. —  Theodore  Parker, 


—The  battle-ground  of  atheism  is  not  in  the  field  of  natural 
science  ;  meaning  by  that  the  study  of  material  phenomena.  The 
argument  from  design  to  an  intelligent  contriver  does  not  require 
the  knowledge  of  a  Cuvier  or  Humboldt  to  make  it  satisfactory. 
Every  man  carries  about  with  him  in  his  own  organization  a 
syllogism  which  all  the  logic  in  the  world  can  never  mend.  If  his 
skepticism  will  not  melt  away  in  such  an  ocean  of  evidence,  it  is 
because  it  is  insoluble. — Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 

9 


r-  There  has  never  been  a  State  of  Atheists.  If  you  wander  over 
the  earth  you  may  find  cities  without  walls,  without  king,  without 
mint,  without  theatre  or  gymnasium,  but  you  will  never  find  a 
city  without  God,  without  prayer,  without  oracle,  without  sacrifice. 
Sooner  may  a  city  stand  without  foundations,  than  a  State  without 
belief  in  the  Gods. — Plutarch. 


—  I  have  consulted  our  philosophers,  I  have  perused  their  books, 
I  have  examined  their  several  opinions,  I  have  found  them  all 
proud,  positive  and  dogmatical,  even  in  their  pretended  skep- 
ticism ;  knowing  everything,  proving  nothing,  and  ridiculing  one 
another. — Rousseau. 

13 


—  I  have  always  been  strongly  in  favor  of  secular  education  in  the 
sense  of  education  without  theology  ;  but  I  must  confess  I  have 
been  no  less  seriously  perplexed  to  know  by  what  practical  meas- 
ures the  religious  feeling,  which  is  the  essential  basis  of  conduct, 
was  to  be  kept  up  in  the  present  utterly  chaotic  state  of  opinion  on 
these  matters,  without  the  use  of  the  Bible. — Huxley. 

15 


—  I  would  fain  ask  a  minute  philosopher  what  good  he  proposes  to 
mankind  by  his  doctrines?  Will  they  make  a  man  a  better  citizen 
or  father  of  a  family?  a  more  endearing  husband,  friend,  or  son? 
Will  they  enlarge  his  public  or  private  virtues,  or  correct  any  of 
his  frailties  or  vices?  What  is  there  either  joyful  or  glorious  in 
such  opinions?  Do  they  either  refresh  or  enlarge  our  thoughts? 
Do  they  contribute  to  the  happiness  or  raise  the  dignity  of  human 
nature?  The  only  good  that  I  have  ever  heard  pretended  to  is, 
that  they  banish  terrors  and  set  the  mind  at  ease.  But  whose 
terrors  do  they  banish?  Those  of  impenitent  criminals  and  male- 
factors, and  which,  to  the  good  of  mankind,  should  be  in  perpetual 
terror  and  alarm. — Sir  R.  Steele :  Tatler. 

17 


NOTE 


I  PERMIT  the  publication  of  this  lecture  in  book 
form  for  the  simple  reason  that  by  many  people  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  I  have  often  been  requested 
to  do  so. 

My  own  opinion  is  that  certain  qualities  —  great  ear- 
nestness, for  example  —  which  entered  into  the  delivery  of 
the  lecture,  but  cannot  be  exhibited  on  the  printed  page, 
will  largely  account  for  the  many  commendatory  words 
the  lecture  has  received.  A  good  delivery  (if  you  please) 
of  very  poor  matter  sometimes  blinds  the  judgment  of  a 
very  acute  critic.  I  am  not  vain  enough  to  believe  for 
a  moment  that  the  calm  judgment  of  my  critics  will  find 
in  the  printed  lecture  grounds  for  the  unusual  praise 
awarded  to  the  lecture  on  the  platform. 

I  am  sure  of  but  one  thing  about  the  matter :  I  am 
right  —  Ingersoll  is  wrong.  My  methods,  my  re-state- 
ments of  old  arguments,  my  illustrations,  my  rhetoric, 
may  all  be  lamentably  weak,  but  the  ideas  which  I  seek 
to  present  are  invincibly  strong. 

I  hope  the  lecture  will  do  good  in  this  form. 

19 


20  NOTE. 


I  have  often  been  asked  to  tell  the  amount  of  the 
largest  fee  I  ever  received  for  the  delivery  of  a  lecture. 
I  think  the  very  largest  reward  any  lecturer  ever  received 
was  the  one  I  got  not  long  since.  Some  one  sent  mer 
one  day  after  I  had  lectured  in  Pittsburgh,  a  copy  of  the 
"Daily  Commercial  Gazette,"  of  that  city.  The  follow- 
ing paragraph  in  the  paper  was  marked  : 

OBITUARY. — William  Lewis,  a  young  man  of  great  promise, 
died  after  a  brief  illness  at  his  home  in  the  Thirty-fifth  ward, 
Sabbath  night,  from  an  attack  of  pneumonia,  which  only  lasted 
a  few  days.  His  death  is  profoundly  lamented  by  a  large  host 
of  young  friends.  His  character  was  irreproachable.  A  singular 
incident  is  noted  in  connection  with  the  sad  affair.  The  deceased, 
though  a  young  man  of  fine  moral  character,  had  honest  doubts 
as  to  the  reality  of  the  Christian  faith,  but  he  was  a  sincere  and 
candid  seeker  after  light.  He  had  read  much  on  the  subject,  and 
gave  a  hearing  to  both  sides.  On  the  Monday  evening  when 
Hon.  Geo.  R.  Wendling  lectured,  he,  with  some  friends,  came 
over  to  hear  that  gentleman,  and  after  the  lecture  said  he  had 
become  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  henceforth  he 
would  pin  his  faith  to  that  belief.  His  convictions  on  the  subject 
were  clear,  and  during  the  few  remaining  days  of  his  life  he  was 
earnest,  though  modest,  in  expressing  his  new  faith,  and  in 
accepting  it. 

Now  I  am  neither  a  preacher  nor  the  son  of  a 
.preacher.  I  do  not  even  know  whether  I  am  orthodox 
or  not.  I  have  never  cared  to  know.  I  doubt  if  there 
be  much  practical  piety  about  me.  But  I  have  learned 
that  that  paragraph  is  true ;  and,  being  true,  I  call  it  the 
greatest  fee  I  ever  received. 


NOTE.  21 


If  the  gentlemen  who  compose  the  famous  publishing 
house  which  sets  its  imprint '  hereon  can  apprise  me 
some  day  of  another  such  incident,  I  shall  regard  the 
publication  of  the  lecture  in  book  form  under  their 
auspices  as  "a  success,"  despite  its  rnanifold  faults  and 

blemishes. 

G.  R.  W. 
BLOOMINGTON,  ILL. 


INGERSOLLISM: 


FROM 


A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


THE  Decalogue  —  the  solitary  autograph 
of  the  Eternal  —  is  not  a  mistake. 

On  the  plains  of  Sinai  have  perished  icon- 
oclasts without  number,  in  the  ineffectual  at- 
tempt to  supplant  that  Decalogue  with  the 
ever  shifting  dictates  of  Reason. 

When  Human  Reason  —  a  bright  and  glo- 
rious goddess  —  shall  add  to  that  Decalogue 
one  line,  or  take  one  line  from  it,  I  will  yield 
to  her  the  exclusive  homage  of  my  heart  and 
brain. 

He  of  Nazareth,  with  His  divine  wisdom, 
might  say  it,  but  Human  Reason  has  tried  in 


24  INGERSOLLISM: 


vain  for  five  thousand  years  to  say — A  new 
commandment  I  give  unto  you. 

Yet  if  Robert  Ingersoll  be  right,  every  man 
makes  his  own  God,  and  aside  from  that  we 
cannot  know  that  there  is  a  God  ;  Christ  was 
at  the  best  an  enthusiast ;  the  Bible  is  a 
curse ;  religion  a  conscious  or  unconscious 
sham  ;  a  future  reckoning  a  chimera  ;  and  im- 
mortality perhaps  a  fancy. 

This  is  Ingersollism  in  its  nude  state,  in  its 
primordial  nakedness  —  stripped  of  its  gor- 
geous and  glowing  raiment,  its  rhetorical 
drapery.  It  is  a  very  ancient  thing,  but  the 
magnificent  and  unique  genius  of  its  modern 
sponsor  entitles  it  to  a  modern  and  unique 
name. 

Before  we  go  further  allow  me  another  pre- 
liminary word.  I  have  learned  something  in 
the  West  of  the  private  life  of  the  gentleman 
whose  views  I  condemn,  whose  name  fur- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  2$ 

nishes  forth  the  title  of  this  lecture.  I  not 
only  honor  his  abilities,  but  I  also  respect  his 
personal  character.  Thus  at  the  beginning, 
with  these  words  of  sincere  and  just  compli- 
ment, let  us  have  done  at  once  and  forever 
with  all  personalities.  If  any  one  has  come 
to  listen  to  personal  detraction  of  Robert 
Ingersoll,  he  has  come  to  be  disappointed.  If 
any  one  comes  to  be  amused,  he  too  has  come 
to  be  disappointed,  for  I  have  come  to  speak 
seriously  upon  very  grave  subjects. 

Let  me  detain  you  at  the  threshold  one 
moment  longer.  You'and  I  will  stand  toward 
each  other  upon  a  footing  I  much  prefer,  if 
you  will  at  once  dismiss  the  impressions  crea- 
ted by  the  far  too  friendly  and  partial  words 
which  have  announced  this  lecture.  Put  aside 
all  thought  of  the  graces,  arts,  and  effects  of 
oratory.  I  pretend  to  nothing  but  a  plain 
and  earnest  discussion  of  the  great  questions 


26  INGERSOLLISM: 

which  lie  before  us  now,  nor  shall  I  in  that 
discussion  sacrifice  strength  for  novelty,  by 
ignoring  arguments  older  than  myself  —  ar- 
guments which  have  stood  the  tests  of  time. 
I  am  here,  not  to  challenge  your  criticism, 
but  to  invoke  your  serious  attention. 

We  go  now  to  our  theme. 

I  have  defined,  or  rather  I  have  summa- 
rized, Ingersollism,  fairly  I  think,  without  an 
exaggerating  tint  or  a  shadow  of  misrepre- 
sentation. In  my  judgment,  these  doctrines 
called  Ingersollism  seriously  affect  our  social 
and  political  structures  as  well  as  our  relig- 
ious institutions.  I  conceive  that  the  inevit- 
able consequences,  business  and  political,  of 
such  teachings  are  of  the  gravest  importance 
to  every  citizen.  I  speak,  therefore,  as  a  citi- 
zen, as  a  business  man,  as  a  lawyer,  and,  if 
you  please,  as  a  politician  —  discarding  the 
narrow  meaning  of  that  word  ;  and  as  such, 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  2J 

would  speak  to  men  of  every  faith  and  call- 
ing. I  would  speak  as  a  "  Man  of  the 
World,"  as  the  churches  say,  and  I  would 
address  myself  to  men  of  the  world,  upon  the 
business,  social,  and  political  phases  of  the 
teachings  Ingersoll  forces  upon  our  attention. 
I  champion  no  creed  nor  sect.  I  place  hu- 
manity above  all  the  creeds  of  the  creed-build- 
ers, and  my  country  above  all  political  and 
religious  partizanship. 

Looking  at  the  subject  now  from  the  point 
of  view  we  have  taken,  very  practical  thoughts 
at  once  suggest  themselves.  There  is  an  im- 
portant question  of  political  economy  involved 
in  this  whole  religious  controversy.  I  turn 
from  the  pages  of  Adam  Smith,  Ricardo,  and 
Professor  Bowen,  and  say  that  if  the  element- 
ary teachings  of  political  economy  be  true, 
and  Ingersoll  and  his  followers  be  right,  every 
church  spire  in  the  land  is  a  monument  of 


28  INGERSOLLISM: 


financial  stupidity,  every  pulpit  a  bad  invest- 
ment. We  must  go  further  still.  We  must 
transform  our  places  of  worship  into  ware- 
houses and  workshops,  stop  every  religious 
press,  put  stocks  of  merchandise  or  steam  en- 
gines and  spindles  into  all  church  buildings, 
convert  our  priests  into  pedagogues,  our  theo- 
logical students  into  students  of  medicine,  and 
our  great  preachers  into  politicians.  Con- 
sider the  effect  upon  "  the  balance  of  trade," 
our  "  table  of  exports,"  if  these  millions  of 
men  and  money  be  driven  into  channels  of 
productive  industry.  Take  the  footings  of 
our  last  census.*  Sixty-three  thousand  church 
edifices  and  twenty-one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  church  sittings  in  the  United  States! 
Three  hundred  and  fifty-four  millions  of  dol- 
lars invested  in  property  devoted  to  the  pur- 
poses of  religion!  Five  times  as  many  men 

*The  Census  of  1870. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  29 

consecrating  their  lives  to  the  cause  of  religion 
as  may  be  found  in  our  standing  army!  Con- 
sider the  details,  infinite  in  number,  variety, 
and  expense,  from  an  international  or  quad- 
rennial or  ecumenical  council,  conference,  or 
synod,  down  to  a  mid-week  prayer-meeting. 
In  your  calculations,  include  the  fact  that 
almost  the  entire  number  of  our  fifty  millions 
suspend  all  remunerative  employment  once  a 
week  and  sacrifice  fifty-two  days  every  year  ! 
Why,  free  trade,  the  remonetization  of  silver, 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  national  banking  system,  and 
our  schemes  for  river  and  harbor  improve- 
ments, are  all  mere  bagatelles  when  compared 
with  the  practical  question  these  facts  in- 
volve ! 

I  put  this  phase  of  Ingersollism  before  you 
as  bankers,  merchants,  tradesmen,  professional 
men,  and  laborers  of  all  kinds,  because  the 


30  INGERSOLLISM: 


facts  involved  therein  bear  directly  and  most 
powerfully  upon  your  financial  interests,  and 
because,  having  met  more  than  one  dishonest 
man  calling  himself  religious,  many  of  us  lend 
willing  ears  to  Ingersoll's  destructive  falla- 
cies. Before  I  have  done  I  shall  more  than 
once  recur  to  this  financial  and  practical  phase 
of  Ingersollism  ;  but  let  us  now  rise  for  a 
while  above  the  dollar  view,  and  inquire  if  in 
the  domain  of  history,  science,  or  reason,  he 
finds  warrant  for  his  teachings.  Of  this  in- 
quiry I  fear  you  may  perhaps  become  impa- 
tient ;  it  may  seem  to  you  collateral,  but  in 
truth  we  shall  find  it  very  pertinent  and  vital. 
As  lawyers,  tradesmen,  bankers,  railroad 
managers,  and  men  of  manual  labor,  all  of 
you  have,  I  know  full  well,  little  time  for 
metaphysics  and  philosophy.  Therefore,  I 
do  not  propose  to  undertake  at  this  time  a 
philosophical  inquiry  into  the  existence  of 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIE  W.  3  I 

God.  I  shall  not  inquire  into  the  truth  of 
the  Bible  as  a  whole.  I  shall  not  reason  in 
theological  formulae  about  the  character  of 
Jesus  Christ.  I  bring  you  no  system  of  the- 
ology. To  different  hands  from  mine  must 
those  inquiries  be  assigned,  and  from  another 
standpoint  than  mine  must  those  inquiries, 
for  the  graver  purposes  of  life,  be  approached. 
Bear  in  mind  then,  if  you  please,  that  I  do 
not  propose  to  myself  the  lofty  task  of  fur- 
nishing argument  which  shall  solve  the  mighty 
questions  suggested  by  the  words  God  and 
Christ.  Nevertheless,  I  conceive  it  to  be  im- 
possible to  rationally  discuss  the  bearings  of 
Ingersoll's  teachings  upon  our  secular  inter- 
ests without  first  inquiring  into  Ingersoll's 
doctrines  concerning  : 

I.  God. 

II.  Christ. 

• 

III.  The  Bible. 


32  INGERSOLLISM: 


That  inquiry  I  propose  to  prosecute  only 
so  far  as  shall  enable  me  to  assert,  that  as 
between  the  solutions  offered  by  Ingersoll 
and  his  followers  upon  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Church  upon  the  other,  men  of  affairs  and 
men  who  love  their  homes  and  their  country 
cannot  hesitate. 

The  opening  sentence  of  Ingersoll's  lecture 
on  "The  Gods"  -a  lecture  containing  every 
semblance  of  argument  that  he  has  ever  urged 
against  religion — contains  the  pregnant  soph- 
ism of  all  his  reasoning.  He  begins 'with  the 
abrupt  and  startling  statement,  "  Each  nation 
has  created  a  God."  If  that  be  true,  then 
indeed  has  this  gentleman  found  ground  for 
sweeping  arguments  and  fierce  philippic.  If 
history  shows  that  human  nature  sets  up  for 
itself  its  own  peculiar  God,  according  to  time 
and  circumstance,  why,  then  the  frightful 
thought  comes  unbidden  to  the  brain  that  we 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  33 

may  have  done  the  same !  That  thought  Inger- 
soll  seizes  upon  and  makes  the  central  thought 
of  his  every  endeavor.  In  every  conceivable 
way;  by  hint  and  by  jest;  by  innuendo  and  by 
positive  allegation;  by  direction  and  indirec- 
tion; everywhere  and  at  all  times  does  he 
seek  to  plant  the  'belief  that  God  is  a  creation 
of  the  imagination. 

And  let  me  tell  you,  this  one  thought  has 
unsettled  more  of  you  than  the  census-taker 
will  ever  discover.  The  pulpit  is  preaching 
against  what  it  calls  Modern  Infidelity;  but 
I  say  —  and  many  of  you  will  not  believe 
me  until  you  reflect  upon  it — I  say  that  the 
need  of  the  day  is  the  destruction  of  Ancient 
Atheism.  Countless  are  the  reasons  why 
men  will  not  avow  the  full  measure  of  their 
doubts  concerning  the  existence  of  an  omnip- 
otent and  personal  God  ;  nevertheless,  those 
doubts  exist,  and  are  greater  foes  to  the 


34  INGERSOLLISM: 


progress  of  religion  than  any  of  the  causes 
more  frequently  assailed  by  the  pulpit.  I 
would  not  presume  to  tell  clergymen  their 
duty  ;  yet  mingling  more  than  they  with  men 
of  the  world,  I  bring  to  them,  from  workshop 
and  from  farm,  from  the  bar,  and  from  the 
public  places  of  every  Venice  where  mer- 
chants most  do  congregate,  the  message  that 
what  most  we  need  is  the  conviction  that 
there  is  a  personal  God.  Strive  to  supply 
that  conviction,  and  seek  to  hedge  it  about 
with  unanswerable  argument,  and  the  Church 
wins  an  invincible  lodgment  in  the  hearts  of 
all  sincere  men.  Upon  this  point,  where  too 
much  is  assumed  every  day  by  the  pulpit 
as  granted,  has  Ingersoll,  with  consummate 
ingenuity,  struck,  and  said,  "  Each  nation  has 
created  a  God." 

Let  us  look  at  that  statement  as  we  would 
at    a   proposition    in    law,    politics,    or    trade. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW,  35 

Let  us  understand  the  words  we  use;  for,  as 
thought  expresses  itself  in  words,  a  right 
word  is  always  as  necessary  as  a  right 
thought.  We  know  from  the  tricks  of  trade, 
of  legislation,  and  of  politicians,  that  words 
may  be  mountains  or  pitfalls. 

"What  do  you  read,  my  lord?" 

inquired  Polonius;  and  believe  me,  Hamlet 
was  more  a  profound  philosopher  than  simu- 
lated fool  when  he  answered, 

"Words,  words,  words." 

Let  us  go  to  an  arbiter  accepted  in  all  our 
courts.  We  ask  of  Webster  the  meaning  of 
this  wonderful  word  "  God,"  and  he  tells  us 
that  the  word  stands  first  for  an  object  of 
worship.  This,  however,  he  follows  by  defin- 
ing the  word  to  mean  "  the  Supreme  Being, 
the  eternal  and  infinite  Spirit,  the  Creator 
and  Sovereign  of  the  universe."  Now  turn 

o 

to  the  word  "  Idol,"  and  we  find  the  primary 


36  INGERSOLLISM: 


meaning  of  that  word  to  be  "an  image  or 
representation  of  anything,"  and  this  he  fol- 
lows by  further  defining  the  word  to  mean 
"  an  image  of  a  divinity."  Now,  with  these 
definitions  in  mind,  let  us  look  again  at  the 
bold  statement,  "  Each  nation  has  created  a 
God,"  and  the  argument  must  run  thus  : 
Each  nation  has  created  an  object  of  worship. 
That  we  admit.  What  follows  ?  That  each 
nation  has  created  an  Eternal  and  Infinite 
Spirit,  a  Creator  and  Sovereign  of  the  uni- 
verse ?  Substitute  the  word  "  idol "  or 
"  images  representing  a  god,"  and  the  argu- 
ment is  historically  true.  Substitute  the 
words  "  Eternal  and  Infinite  Spirit,"  and  the 
argument  is  historically  false  The  fallacy 
lies  —  the  very  simple  fallacy,  when  once 
it  is  exposed  —  in  confounding  the  idea  of 
worshipping  an  Eternal  and  Infinite  Spirit 
of  which  no  graven  image  can  be  made,  with 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  37 

ft 

the  idea  of  worshipping  imaginary  or  created 
beings  capable  of  being  symbolized  by  im- 
ages. It  is  the  fallacy  of  confounding  idol- 
atry or  image-worship  with  the  worship  of 
the  Eternal  and  Infinite  Spirit.  English- 
speaking  peoples  have  named  the  Eternal 
and  Infinite  Spirit  —  GOD.  But  the  poverty 
of  our  language  has  compelled  us  to  call  the 
objects  of  heathen  worship  —  gods.  It  is 
remarkable  —  it  is  anomalous  —  but  it  is  true, 
that  the  word  when  used  in  the  singular  has 
a  meaning  entirely  dissociated  from  the 
meaning  which  attaches  to  the  plural.  Our 
conception  of  God,  as  defined  by  Webster, 
excludes  the  conception  of  gods,  and  Inger- 
soll,  in  speaking  of  gods,  attempts  to  con- 
found the  two  conceptions,  and  therein  lies 
his  fallacy.  Substitute,  I  repeat,  the  word 
idols,  or  images  representing  a  god,  and  his 
argument  is  historically  true  ;  substitute  the 


3  8  INGER  SOLLISM: 


words  Eternal  and  Infinite  Spirit,  and  his 
argument  is  historically  false.  Many  nations 
have  created  gods,  and  each  nation  different 
gods  ;  but  among  all  nations  may  be  found 
traces  of  the  idea  of  the  supreme  God. 

I  affirm  —  and  in  making  this  affirmation 
I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  apparent  excep- 
tion noted  by  Sir  John  Lubbock — I  affirm 
that  among  every  people,  in  every  quarter 
of  the  habitable  globe,  there  exists  this  day, 
and  has  existed  from  the  furthest  reach 
of  history,  the  idea  of  one  eternal  and  all- 
powerful  God.  Among  the  Greeks  the  idea 
was  embodied  in  their  Zeus,  and  in  the 
remotest  period  of  Greek  antiquity  there 
lingered  a  faith  in  one  supreme  God.  Con- 
fucius, five  hundred  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  addressed  prayers  to  the  mysterious 
and  unknown  power,  and  the  oldest  of  Chi- 
nese books  teach  that  there  is  one  supreme 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  39 

God.  The  Rig-Veda  of  ancient  India  speaks 
of  One  who  is  God  above  gods.  The  Zend- 
Avesta  of  Zoroaster,  written,  as  all  anti- 
quaries agree,  not  less'  than  one  thousand 
years  before  the  new  era,  recognizes  one 
Original  and  Infinite  Being.  The  mythology 
of  ancient  Egypt,  with  all  its  worship  of 
animals  and  idols,  has  for  its  central  fact  that 
Osiris  was  the  supreme  God.  In  the  religion 
of  the  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian  races  may 
be  found  their  Odin,  described  in  their  Eddas 
and  Sagas  as  the  very  God  of  gods.  In  the 
Pentateuch  we  learn  that  many  centuries 
before  the  new  era,  the  Jews  believed  in  and 
worshipped  Jehovah  as  the  one  ever-living 
and  all-powerful  God.  The  North  American 
Indian  has  his  one  Great  Spirit.  Go  where 
you  will,  to  Europe,  Asia,  America,  Africa, 
and  to  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  all  through 
the  ages  there  runs  the  idea  of  one  eternal 


4<D  INGERSOLLISM: 


and  all-powerful  God.  While  each  and  all 
of  these  nations  have  had  many  idols,  many 
images  of  worship,  many  of  Ingersoll's  gods,. 
yet  among  them  all,  and  over  and  above  them 
all,  may  be  found  traces  of  the  idea  of  a 
supreme  God.  This  fact,  this  very  important 
historical  fact,  with  which  we  necessarily 
begin  our  discussion,  cannot  be  doubted - 
cannot  be  denied.  It  is  as  true  as  history 
itself,  and  it  is  as  prominent  as  any  other 
one  fact  in  history. 

Quitting  the  domain  of  history,  Ingersoll 
goes  to  metaphysics,  and  asserts  that  man 
has  no  ideas,  and  can  have  none,  except  those 
suggested  by  his  surroundings.  He  tells  us 
that  man  cannot  conceive  of  anything  utterly 
unlike  what  he  has  seen  or  felt.  In  a  word, 
he  tells  us  that  ideas  and  conceptions  are 
the  reflections  of  things. 

I  shall  not  suggest  here  any  of  the  difficul- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  41 

ties  which  the  intuitional  school  of  metaphy- 
sicians oppose  to  the  school  that  derive  all 
ideas  from  sensation  —  the  school  from  which 
Ingersoll  takes  his  statement.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  grant  the  statement  to  be  true.  But 
now,  if  the  broad  proposition  be  true  that 
man  has  no  ideas  except  those  suggested  by 
his  surroundings,  whence  comes  the  idea,  that 
has  run  like  a  golden  gleam  through  the  ages, 
of  one  Eternal  and  Omnipotent  God  ? 

Whence  comes  it  ? 

By  Ingersoll's  own  argument,  by  his  own 
philosophy,  by  his  own  metaphysics,  there 
must  be  such  a  God,  else  the  idea  would  not 
exist ! 

And  do  you  know  that  you  cannot  imagine 
a  thing  to  be  which  does  not  exist  ?  Make 
the  experiment.  Behold  ! — gorgons,  naiads, 
and  centaurs — angels  of  light  and  imps  of 
darkness — Asmodeus  with  dyed  garments— 


42  INGERSOLLISM: 

and  Queen  Mab — and  the  Culprit  Fay — and 
Caliban — and  the  god  Ahura  Mazda,  the  Per- 
sian fount  of  primeval  light  —  and  fancies 
without  number,  as  wild  and  spectral  and 
grand  as  those  of  dreamland  in  a  fevered 
sleep, — come  and  go  and  come  again.  But 
stop!  You  are  simply  imagining  new  combi- 
nations of  old  material!  You  have  gone  into 
that  marvellous  work-shop,  your  brain,  and 
taken  thence  ideas  which  surroundings  in  the 
past  have  suggested,  experience  accumulated, 
and  memory  preserved,  made  novel  combina- 
tions, and  you,  like  Ingersoll,  stand  ready  to 
proclaim  yourself  a  Creator,  when  in  fact 
you  are  only  a  carpenter  and  joiner  !  For,  re- 
solve now  every  one  of  your  weirdest  imagin- 
ings into  its  component  parts,  and  Brahma 
the  Golden  and  Vishnu  the  Sombre  lie  at 
your  feet  classified  into  legs  and  arms  and 
heads  and  crescents,  and  necklaces  of  skulls. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIE  W.  43 

Under  this  law  every  one  of  the  high  gods  of 
heathendom  is  resolved  into  its  constituent 
parts ;  the  Devil  of  mediaeval  superstition 
falls  back  into  his  original  elements  of  hoofs 
and  horns,  and  his  reputed  home,  the  mediae- 
val hell,  fades  away  in  vanishing  clouds  of 
sulphurous  smoke,  or  disappears  forever  in 
the  brilliant  but  evanescent  and  unreal  flames 
of  a  poet's  Inferno. 

But  the  conception,  the  thought,  the  idea 
of  one  ever-living  and  all-powerful  God,  an 
eternal  and  infinite  Spirit,  is  not  touched  by 
this  law.  That  conception  has  no  constituent 
elements.  It  is  a  single  concept.  It  is  abso- 
lute. It  is  a  perfect  type  of  unity.  It  stands 
alone.  It  lies  beyond  the  line  of  imagination. 
It  is  of  itself  a  revelation.  Being  an  idea, 
then,  which  has  existed  from  the  beginning  in 
the  minds  of  men,  it  must,  by  Ingersoll's 
logic,  be  the  reflection  of  a  fact. 


44  INGERSOLLISM: 


Again,  he  tells  us  that  a  belief  in  God 
springs  from  fear  and  solicitude  concerning 
future  events  and  a  desire  to  placate  the  Un- 
known. The  stupendous  error  in  this  state- 
ment is  the  indisputable  fact  that  man,  civil- 
ized and  uncivilized,  learned  and  unlearned, 
vicious  and  innocent — yonder  in  the  crowded 
streets  of  the  city,  and  there  in  the  solitude 
of  the  forest  —  now  and  in  all  past  ages- 
turns  in  his  darkest  hours  with  trust  and  con- 
fidence to  that  God,  and  unconsciously,  intui- 
tively, instinctively  acknowledges  His  good- 
ness, by  always,  in  the  moment  of  calamity, 
invoking  His  aid.  No!  no!  I  tell  you,  in  the 
name  of  every  truthful  line  the  muse  of  his- 
tory has  yet  inspired,  that  Atheism  is  the 
primeval  coward  —  your  genuine  coward - 
conceived  in  cowardice  —  brought  forth  in 
cowardice — reared  in  cowardice — and  in  the 
unclean  garb  of  Nihilism,  Socialism  and  Com- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  45 

munism,  swaggers  through  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica to-day,  a  cowardly  braggart! 

Atheism,  vaporing  like  Bessus,  Pistol,  or 
Bobadil,  and  as  belligerent  as  Sir  Lucius 
O5 Trigger,  grapples  now  and  then,  and  over- 
comes, some  sickly  child  begotten  of  an  un- 
healthy orthodoxy,  and  forthwith  proclaims 
itself  a  giant.  At  other  times  it  falls,  here 
and  there,  upon  some  discarded  and  defence-* 
less  tenet,  left  behind  in  the  march  of  religious 
growth  and  progress,  and  around  it  dances 
the  war-dance  of  a  cowardly  savage,  and  with 
an  air  of  bravado  proclaims  itself  the  puissant 
and  only  foe  of  bigotry.  Here,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  scholars  who  have  won  distinction  on 
a  hundred  intellectual  battle-fields,  I  appeal  to 
the  history  of  intellectual  development  in 
every  age  and  in  every  land,  and  make  the 
explicit  and  direct  charge  that  Atheism  is  the 
coward  of  the  centuries,  white-headed  and 


46  INGERSOLLISM: 


craven-hearted,  skulking  through  the  by-ways 
of  sophistry,  and  not  daring  to  come  into  the 
presence  of  even  a  merciful  God. 

Again,  Ingersoll  tells  us  that  ignorance  of 
the  causes  of  events  and  the  phenomena  of 
nature  impelled  man  to  assign  supernatural 
causes.  Hath  not  a  little  learning  made 
Atheism  mad  ? 

Because  an  eclipse  is  now  known  to  be  no 
miracle  ;  because  the  thunder  is  now  known 
to  be  not  God's  voice,  and  the  errant  light- 
ning not  His  thunderbolt;  because  the  sun  in 
truth  does  not  rise,  and  the  moon's  phases 
are  not  the  effects  of  an  unknown  power ; 
because  pestilence  is  the  direful  penalty  of 
violating  some  law  of  nature  and  comes  not 
as  the  blighting  curse  of  some  black  angel 
sent  to  earth  on  a  mission  of  woe;  because 
in  many  instances  science  has  explained  phe- 
nomena which  ignorance  attributed  to  super- 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  47 

natural  causes,  Atheism,  forsooth,  dispenses 
with  God — waves  aside  the  Almighty — bows 
out  the  Eternal  One. 

Come,  then,  and  tell  us  the  secret  of  the 
great  law  of  gravitation  ;  explain  to  us  the 
beating  of  the  heart ;  tell  us  what  the  princi- 
ple of  life  is  in  animal  or  plant ;  explain  the 

• 
origin    of    protoplasm    or    monad ;   whom    or 

what  do  those  heavenly  bodies  obey  which 
complete  their  orbits  "  only  after  the  lapse  of 
ages,  and  which  reappear  with  unfailing  pre- 
cision at  the  point  from  which  they  started, 
as  if  to  present  themselves  to  Him  who  sent 
them  on  their  way;"  how  comes  it  that  races 
of  men  and  animals  are  conserved  by  a  due 
proportion  of  male  and  female  births;  whence 
comes  and  what  is, force,  and  what  is  thought, 
and  what  is  love,  and  what  is  conscience,  and 
where  and  what  is  the  power  that  holds  and 
guides  throughout  countless  aeons,  sun,  earth, 


48  INGERSOLLISM: 

and  moon  in  their  majestic  courses  ;  and  why 
is  it  that  one  drop  of  water  is  still  as  wonder- 
ful as  all  the  seas,  one  leaf  as  all  the  forests, 
and  one  grain  of  sand  as  all  the  stars  ? 

Here,  then,  is  the  Atheistic  dilemma.  As 
knowledge  increases,  the  vista  of  the  un- 
known enlarges,  and  thereby  the  very  cause 
assigned  for  an  increase  of  scientific  Atheism 
becomes  a  more  potent  reason  for  a  belief 
in  God. 

But  once  again,  he  tells  us  that  nature 
is  too  ill-contrived  an  affair  at  best,  suscep- 
tible of  too  many  improvements  for  it  ever 
to  have  come  from  the  omnipotent  hand 
of  an  all-wise  and  all-merciful  God.  Our 
brilliant  Atheist  would  have  made  the  earth 
free  from  disease  and  pain  —  no  sorrow,  no 
suffering,  no  sickness,  no  enfeebled  age,  no 
storm,  nor  famine,  nor  pestilence,  nor  death. 
I  ask  the  question  here  : —  Has  Atheism  any 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  49 

infallible  scheme  of  its  own  whereby  these 
evils,  one  or  all,  may  be  removed  ?  And 
from  the  gloomy  retreat  of  Fatalism  there 
comes  the  sullen  answer:  Nay  —  we  have 
none.  I  ask  another  question  :  With  all  the 
woe  and  suffering  of  earth,  is  there  not  more 
of  happiness  than  sorrow  ?  And  again  the 
reluctant  answes  comes  :  Crime  and  wretch- 
edness dwell  only  here  and  there.  Once 
more  I  ask  :  Is  it  not  true  that  our  blessings 
are  in  a  measure  conditioned  by  our  evils - 
that  without  vice  there  could  be  no  stern  and 
durable  virtue  in  morals,  and  without  a  con- 
flict with  nature  none  of  our  glorious  prog- 
ress in  science  ?  And  even  the  philosophy  of 
Atheism  must  answer:  All  this  is  true. 
Were  it  otherwise,  nature  itself  would  be 

"  Faultily  faultless,  icily  regular,  splendidly  null, 
Dead  perfection,  no  more." 
4 


50  INGERSOLLISM: 


The  Amoving  why"  of  evil  we  may  not 
solve,  but  its  existence  strengthens  not  one 
whit  the  arm  of  Atheism. 

It  may  seem  that  cruelty  goes  unpunished, 
virtue  unrewarded,  and  injured  innocence  un- 
requited ;  but  who  can  tell  ? 

What  is  the  plan,  of  which  we  are  parts, 
and  what  shall  be  its  final  outcome  ?  We 
know  a  little  of  this  planet  and  of  our  times, 
and  have  books  we  call  histories  ;  but  what 
of  the  future  and  its  reckoning  ?  And 
this  world  we  call  ours  —  it  is  but  a  star  of 
minor  magnitude  in  the  great  firmament  of 
stars.  Who,  even  the  most  casual  and  indif- 
ferent reader,  thinking  of  that  future,  can 
look  into  yonder  firmament  and  see  the  in- 
finite hosts  of  worlds  roll  by,  and  not  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  deep,  deep  meaning  in  the 
words  of  that  Wonderful  One  who  claimed 
kinship  with  God,  and  said,  at  eventide,  and 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  51 

perhaps  pointing  to  the  stars: — "In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions  "  ? 

Enough  now  of  these  cavillings.  Let  us 
go  on  to  matter  of  more  moment  to  us  all. 

In  dealing  with  Ingersoll's  eloquent  de- 
nials, with  his  brilliant  banterings,  with  his 
coruscating  captiousness,  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  we  are  only  skirting  the  borders  of  the 
matter  in  hand,  that  we  are  parties  to  a 
guerilla  war  on  the  frontier.  Let  us  turn, 
therefore,  and  go  further,  not  forgetting^  that 
we  are  now  at  length  brought  face  to  face 
with  a  subject  of  awful  significance. 

It  matters  very  little  to  us  as  business  men, 
I  am  sure,  whether  this  or  that  creed,  or  this 
or  that  article  of  faith,  has.  few  or  many  doc- 
trinal errors  in  it ;  but  our  social,  our  busi- 
ness, and  our  political  life  contain  so  many 
hidden  springs  of  action  resting  upon  the 
idea  that  there  is  one  eternal  and  all-power- 


5  2  INGER  SOLLISM: 


ful  God,  that  we  would  not — ought  not — can 
not — do  not — rest  until  we  feel  that  our  feet 
are  upon  a  rock.  It  is  not  enough,  then,  that 
we  answer  the  cavils  and  sneers  of  Atheism. 
Let  us  move,  therefore,  into  a  position  where 
we  may  invite  attack  —  a  position  which  no 
form  of  infidelity  has  ever  yet  successfully 
assailed. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  Ralph  Cudworth, 
in  his  grand  work — "  The  True  Intellectual 
System  of  the  Universe"  -revived  the  an- 
cient query :  Were  eyes  made  for  the  sake  of 
seeing,  and  were  ears  made  for  the  sake  of 
hearing?  But  a  day  or  two  ago,  as  it  were, 
Joseph  Cook,  with  all  the  power  of  a  master 
mind  and  tongue,  brought  scientific  Atheism 
face  to  face  with  that  same  question,  and 
defied  a  denial  of  its  proof  of  God.  Let  me 
convey  to  you,  for  purposes  of  my  own,  this 
argument  of  Cudworth's  and  Cook's,  divested 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  53 

of  its  metaphysical  and  technical  terms  ;  and 
here  let  me  ask  for  a  single  moment  only 
your  close  attention. 

The  idea  or  thought  of  sight  preceded  the 
making  of  an  eye.  The  idea  or  thought  of 
hearing  preceded  the  making  of  an  ear. 

"  How  do  you  know  that?"  asks  an  audi- 
tor. In  the  same  way  that  I  know  that  ques- 
tion existed  in  your  mind  before  you  gave  it 
language.  Your  language  is  but  the  outer 
coating  of  your  doubt.  The  doubt  rested  in 
your  mind  until  your  language  came  as  a 
vehicle  to  carry  the  doubt  to  me.  So  the 
eye  and  the  ear  are  but  articulate  expressions 
•of  the  two  thoughts,  sight  and  hearing. 

Now  Paley  came,  many  years  ago,  and 
said,  as  you  have  all  often  heard,  "  There  can 
be  no  design  without  a  designer."  And  Soc- 
rates said  it,  and  Plato  said  it,  two  thousand 
three  hundred  years  ago,  and  the  best  intel- 


54  INGERSOLLISM: 


lects  of  the  human  race  have  said  it  in  every 
age.  And  it  is  true,  true  enough;  but  I  am 
not  taking  your  time  with  a  needless  repeti- 
tion of  the  celebrated  "design  argument." 
There  is  something  more  than  mere  design 
in  eye  and  ear,  in  sight  and  hearing  —  much 
more.  Sight  and  hearing  are  in  and  of  them- 
selves thoughts  ;  thoughts  which  had  an  ex- 
istence in  the  mind  of  something  or  .some  one 
before  ever  ear  and  eye  were  made.  Not 
only  can  there  be  no  design  without  a  de- 
signer, but  there  can  be  no  thought  without 
a  thinker. 

There  is  design  in  the  eye,  it  is  true,  but 
there  is  thought  in  sight.  There  is  design 
in  the  ear,  it  is  true,  but  there  is  thought  in 
hearing.  There  is  thought  in  nature  ;  there 
is  thought  in  this  boundless  universe  of  ours  ; 
there  is  thought  in  history,  as  epoch  slowly 
succeeds  epoch  ;  and  all  that  thought  is  other 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  55 

than  our  thought ;  and  thought  other  than 
our  own  simply  means  a  thinker  other  than 
ourselves,  for  there  can  be  no  thought  with- 
out a  thinker. 

There  is  the  logic  of  old,  breaking  anew 
like  a  sun-burst  upon  this  age  of  facts  !  It  is 
invincible.  Its  very  simplicity  makes  it  in- 
comparably grand.  Before  it,  the  laws  of 
evolution  and  development,  of  conservation 
and  correlation  of  forces,  must  take  their 
places  as  secondary  causes.  Let  the  human 
eye  be  the  consummation  of  countless  ages 
of  growth  and  development,  if  you  will ;  yet 
above  that  growth  and  development  must 
have  stood  a  Thinker  with  the  preconceived 
idea  or  thought  of  sight.  There  is  the  logic 
of  the  psalmist,  the  philosopher  of  old,  and 
the  devout  scientist  of  to-day.  History  and 
reason  must  bow  before  it.  I  repeat,  it  is 
invincible.  Pleasurable  as  the  task  would  be, 


5  6  INGER  SOLLISM: 


I  need  not  dwell  upon  it.  Elaboration  can- 
not strengthen  it.  It  is  but  one  of  a  million 
of  illustrations.  Its  full  force  will  come  upon 
you  in  countless  ways.  Fix  in  your  minds 
and  hold  firmly,  now  and  hereafter,  the  un- 
deniable proposition  that  there  can  be  no 
thought  other  than  our  own  unless  there  be 
somewhere  in  the  universe  a  thinker  other 
than  ourselves,  and  surely  and  steadily  you 
move  by  the  light  of  reason  into  the  sublime 
presence  of  the  great  Thinker  of  the  universe 
—  the  wonderful,  the  omnipotent,  the  ineffa- 
ble One  whom  the  Christian  world  calls 
GOD. 

As  rational  men,  we  will  go  now  out  into 
the  world,  each  man  to  his  own  particular  sta- 
tion, carrying  with  him  the  consciousness  of 
one  Eternal  and  Infinite  Being. 

Now,  what  are  the  moral  attributes  of  that 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  57 

Being  ?  We  cannot  pass  from  this  branch  of 
our  discussion  just  yet,  for  this  question  de- 
mands an  answer  here,  because  man  has  a 
moral  nature  ;  because  there  is  something  in 
every  man  which  says  :  "  I  ought,"  and  "  I 
ought  not."  Weave  around  this  fact  all  the 
casuistry  you  will,  and  tell  me,  if  you  choose, 
with  Hume,  and  Volney,  and  Voltaire,  that 
"I  ought"  in  Constantinople  simply  means 
"  I  ought  not"  in  London;  still  the  fact  re- 
mains that  God  made  man  with  this  omni- 
present "  I  ought "  implanted  in  his  nature. 

And  this  moral,  like  the  intellectual  part  of 
man,  must  have  a  teacher.  Man  must  have 
an  ideal.  That  moral  ideal  will  be  found 
when  he  finds  the  attributes  of  his  God  and 
learns  how  he  may  grow  toward  them. 

I  am  preaching  no  abstruse  philosophy.  I 
simply  proclaim  human  nature  as  God  made 
it.  In  art,  in  literature,  in  religion,  in  poll- 


58  INGERSOLLTSM: 


tics,  in  business  and  in  every-day  life,  men 
grow  toward  their  ideals.  Every  man,  young 
or  old,  has,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  his 
ideal.  A  thousand  things  betoken  it  in  child- 
hood. Study  your  little  ones  for  a  passing 
hour  as  they  play  about  your  hearth-stone, 
and  you  will  see  that  a  thousand  things  be- 
token, in  children  even,  their  ideals  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  The  school-room, 
then,  of  the  mental  man,  must  have,  some- 
where and  somehow,  in  society,  a  counterpart 
for  the  moral  man.  A  teacher,  I  say,  and  an 
ideal,  all  must  have.  Why,  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  Plutarch  said  that  whenever  we 
begin  an  enterprise,  or  take  possession  of  a 
charge,  or  experience  a  calamity,  we  place 
before  our  eyes  the  greatest  men  of  our  own 
or  of  by-gone  ages,  and  ask  ourselves  how 
Plato,  Epaminondas,  or  Lycurgus,  would  have 
acted.  And  he  adds  that,  looking  into  these 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  59 

personages  as  into  a  faithful  mirror,  we  may 
remedy  our  defects  in  word  or  deed ;  and 
whenever  any  perplexity  arises  or  any  passion 
disturbs  the  mind,  the  student  of  philosophy 
pictures  to  himself  some  of  those  who  have 
been  justly  celebrated  for  their  virtues,  and 
the  recollection  sustains  his  tottering  steps 
and  prevents  his  fall. 

Another  thought  just  here  :  Lecky,  in  his 
"  History  of  Morals,"  regards  it,  and  justly,  I 
think,  as  an  axiomatic  fact,  that  any  moral 
system  for  the  government  of  society  must 
be  capable  of  influencing  natures  which  can 
never  rise  to  a  heroic  level.  So  it  comes  that 
if  Plutarch's  philosopher  needs  an  ideal,  much 
more  must  we,  as  plain  men  of  business,  as 
men  of  every-day  life,  possess  an  ideal  too. 
Who,  then,  shall  be  our  moral  ideal,  and 
where  shall  we  find  our  moral  teacher  ?  A 
plain  practical  question  that  I  put  to  you  in 


60  INGERSOLLISM: 


the  interests  of  your  homes  and  your  chil- 
dren, in  the  interest  of  society,  in  the  interest 
of  our  country,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  any 
sect  under  the  broad  dome  of  heaven  ;  and 
I  answer  that  question  by  saying  that  The 
Book,  and  The  Book  alone,  can  furnish  that 
teacher,  and  The  Book  alone  can  supply  that 
ideal ;  and  by  The  Book  I  mean  the  aggregate 
of  religious  teachings  and  influences  embodied 
in  and  derived  from  the  Bible. 

The  one  unifying  element  which  permeates 
all  Christian  sects  and  denominations  is  a 
common  faith  in  the  moral  and  religious  suffi- 
ciency of  the  Bible  ;  and  again  do  I  say  that 
the  Bible  furnishes,  and  it  alone,  the  Teacher 
and  the  Ideal  we  seek. 

Ingersoll  and  his  followers  say,  "  No ! " 
Modern  infidelity  steps  to  the  front,  in  this 
the  evening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  6  I 

cries,   "  No  !  —  go  to  the  Trinity  of  Reason, 
Observation,  and  Experience." 

Let  us  try  this  issue  in  Ingersoll's  own 
chosen  forum  —  the  court  of  Experience.  The 
mighty  question  which  greets  us  at  the  very 
threshold,  as  plain  practical  men  —  for  we  of 
this  Western  world  are  plain  practical  men  — 
the  question,  I  say,  which  greets  us  at  the 
very  threshold  is  :  Whose  experience,  obser- 
vation and  reason  shall  guide  us,  who  stand 
in  need  of  a  teacher  ?  Plato's,  the  very  king 
of  philosophers  ?  Why,  he  taught  that  wives 
should  be  held  in  common,  in  order  that  their 
children  might  be  the  more  exclusively  at- 
tached to  their  country.  He  advocated  sui- 
cide in  the  presence  of  poverty  or  other  great 
calamity  ;  and  in  this,  Seneca,  Pliny,  and  other 
schools  of  philosophy,  agree.  Take  the  an- 
cient teachers,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle  and 
all  —  than  whom,  I  take  it,  not  even  Robert 


62  INGERSOLLISM: 


Ingersoll  himself,  nor  any  of  his  disciples,  is 
a  greater  philosopher  —  and  concede  all  that 
may  be  claimed  for  their  philosophy  and 
learning,  and  grant  that  in  the  five  hundred 
years  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  new  era, 
mathematics,  astronomy,  chemistry,  mechan- 
ics, and  other  sciences,  achieved  grand  dis- 
tinction, yet  the  indisputable  fact  remains 
that  in  point  of  public  and  private  morals 
their  times  were  as  dark  as  the  darkest  of  all 
the  ages.  It  is  historically  true,  and  every 
classical  scholar  knows  that  even  their  god- 
desses were  odiously  impure,  and  that  the 
most  debasing  of  idolatrous  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies prevailed. 

I  am  speaking  history  now.  Look  to  every 
point  of  the  compass  during  the  five  hundred 
years  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  New  Era, 
among  nations  barbarous  or  polished,  and  a 
black  impenetrable  mass  of  moral  disorder 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  63 

and  ruin  rises  before  our  eyes.  I  repeat,  I 
am  speaking  history.  Under  the  guidance  of 
philosophy,  led  by  reason,  observation,  and 
experience,  revenge  and  rapine,  fraud,  theft, 
suicide  and  cruelty,  were  patronized  and  coun- 
tenanced by  the  masses,  taught  by  philoso- 
phers, and  reprobated  by  none.  Short-lived 
epochs  free  from  those  vices  may  be  found, 
but  they  stand  as  prominent  exceptions  to  an 
almost  universal  rule.  Moral  misery,  like  a 
black  portentous  cloud,  overshadowed  the 
world  with  gloom.  Why?  In  the  presence 
of  all  this  learning  and  philosophy,  why  this 
condition  of  public  morals  ? 

These  five  hundred  years  are  the  golden 
age,  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  human  mind,  in 
purely  intellectual  achievements.  Our  cen- 
tury, it  is  true,  outstrips  all  the  centuries  in 
displays  of  inventive  genius,  in  feats  of  utili- 
ty. But  ours  is  a  mechanical  age;  that,  an 


64  INGERSOLLISM: 


age  of  lofty  speculation,  of  intellect  in  its 
higher  walks,  of  philosophy,  art,  and  poetry. 
That  was  the  age  that  saw  Socrates  in  the 
streets  oT  Athens,  heard  Plato  in  his  garden 
near  the  Academy,  and  beheld  in  the  Acropo- 
lis the  Olympian  Jupiter  fresh  from  the  im- 
mortal chisel  of  the  master  Phidias.  It  was 
the  age  that  gave  us  Euclid  and  his  pupil 
Archimedes  —  that  gave  us  Aristotle  —  that 
gave  us  Demosthenes.  It  was  the  age  that 
read  history  fresh  from  the  unrivalled  pen  of 
Thucydides,  and  applauded  the  wonderful 
dramas  of  ^Eschylus.  It  was  an  age,  indeed, 
that  saw  in  sculptured  marble  rarer  forms  of 
grace  and  beauty  and  majestic  power  than 
the  world  ever  saw  before  or  since ;  that 
heard  strains  of  eloquence  and  poetry  as 
thrilling  as  ever  fell  on  mortal  ear ;  that  pon- 
dered the  grave  problems  of  life  with  as 
profound  insight  as  unaided  intellect  has  ever 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  65 

shown  ;  and  in  every  department  of  specula- 
tive philosophy  reached  the  very  mountain 
heights  of  human  endeavor. 

Again  do  I  ask,  why,  in  such  an  age  as 
that,  do  we  find  such  a  condition  of  public 
morals  ? 

The  answer  is  simple,  direct,  and  unmis- 
takably true  :  —  Because  there  was  no  univer- 
sally recognized  standard  of  moral  truth  ; 
because  there  was  no  generally  accepted  code 
of  right;  and  because  there  was  no  order  of 
men  to  instruct  the  masses  in  morals.  An- 
cient Ingersollism  held'  undisputed  sway,  and 
universal  night  brooded  over  land  and  sea. 

Slowly,  beautifully,  like  the  coming  of  the 
dawn,  like  the  soft  approach  of  the  sunrise, 
comes  from  Judea  a  new  philosophy.  Here 
let  us  pause  a  moment. 

We  have  gone  out  into  our  business 
world  —  gone  with  man  to  his  counting-room, 


66  INGERSOLLISM: 


and  workshop,  and  farm  —  left  him  to  his 
struggle  with  life  and  nature,  conscious  only 
of  God,  and  looking  around  and  above  for 
an  ideal,  and  troubled  by  the  perplexing 
altercations  of  the  omnipresent  "  I  ought " 
and  "  I  .ought  not."  Let  us  still  leave  him 
there,  and  go  back  through  the  ages,  and, 
retracing  our  steps,  discover  if  we  can  the 
secret  of  our  modern  civilization,  and  learn 
if  we  may  where  man  shall  find  the  Ideal 
One. 

There  is  a  book  in  two  volumes  called  the 
Bible.  It  claims  to  be  authentic.  Admit 
that  claim  for  the  present  —  for  a  few  mo- 
ments only.  The  older  volume  closes  with 
a  prophecy  ;  the  new  opens  with  a  fulfilment 
and  culminates  with  a  revelation.  The  older 
volume  fills  one  with  the  feeling  that  a  mar- 
vellous but  undisclosed  element  underlies  the 
movement  of  the  book.  Generations  come 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW,  67 

and  go,  but  seem  to  tend  in  one  direction. 
There  seems  to  be  a  life  below  the  surface/ 
and  in  the  words  of  an  unknown  writer : 
"  Through  the  prophetic  veil  there  glows  the 
image  of  a  man,  stranger  to  every  one,  yet 
friendly  to  all."  And  a  marvellous  image  it 
is!  —  so  indistinct,  and  yet  so  positive;  gen- 
tle, yet  carrying  awful  power ;  very  near,  yet 
distant  as  the  unseen  God ;  and  a  strange 
spell  binds  the  reader,  until,  having  closed 
the  prophecies,  he  opens  the  next  volume, 
and  in  the  opening  chapter  finds  the  Past 
assembled  —  forty-two  generations,  convened 
as  witnesses  to  attest  a  birth  —  and  comes  to 
the  Star,  the  Virgin,  and  the  Child  ! 

Shall  we  stop  now  to  question  the  incom- 
prehensible ?  Remember,  we  are  moving  in 
the  presence  of  the  Infinite,  and  to  deny  the 
possibility  of  an  Incarnation  is  to  deny  the 
omnipotence  of  the  Omnipotent ! 


68  INGERSOLLISM: 


The  story  moves  rapidly  on.  The  angelic 
Annunciation,  the  Manger,  the  homage  of 
the  Wise  Men  —  all  pass  before  us  like  a 
panorama.  Then  come  the  sword  of  Herod, 
the  flight,  the  retirement  for  thirty  years, 
interrupted  only  by  a  reappearance  at  the 
age  of  twelve  ;  then  come  the  Baptism,  the 
Temptation,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ; 
then  come  miracles  and  parables  and  say- 
ings —  a  new  philosophy  —  the  calling  of  fol- 
lowers—  a  tumult  among  people  and  rulers 
—  the  betrayal  —  the  trial  —  the  crucifixion 
-the  resurrection  —  the  ascension.  Three 
years  more  have  passed  ;  the  Pentecost  and 
the  Church  soon  follow,  and  —  be  that  story 
true  or  false  —  the  mightiest  revolution 
known  among  men  is  begun,  for  the  Being 
whose  strange  career  we  have  gazed  upon 
shall  become  the  Christ  of  civilized  humanity! 
Now,  what  has  this  singular  narration  to 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  69 

do  with  you  and  your  interests  as  business 
men  ?  Let  us  pursue  our  argument  yet  a 
while,  and  we  shall  see. 

I  do  not  stop  now  to  argue  that  the  prin- 
cipal of  these  events  as  historical  realities 
actually  occurred.  The  German  and  the 
French  rationalistic  schools  of  infidelity  made 
all-important  concessions  here  fifteen  years 
ago,  and  an  intelligent  minister  or  priest  shall 
convince  you  of  it  in  a  single  sermon.  I  do 
not  claim  that  any  one  or  more  of  these 
events  sustain  any  doctrine  peculiar  to  some 
Christian  sect.  Enough  and  more  than 
enough  of  such  discourses  are  always  at  your 
hands.  I  shall  not  enter  upon  an  argument 
to  prove  that  these  events  fulfil  a  prophecy. 
Every  Bible  student  is  armed  here  from  top 
to  toe,  and  every  congregation  can  set  for- 
ward scores  of  such  who  shall  give  you  in  an 
hour  overwhelming  proofs. 


70  INGERSOLLISM: 


All  this,  however,  is  aside  from,  or  at  best 
incidental  to,  my  purpose.  But  one  fact  we 
cannot  overlook  —  a  tremendous  fact:  this 
Christ  —  no  matter  now  what  He  may  be,  no 
matter  now  who  He  may  be,  no  matter  now 
whether  this  book  we  have  found  be  inspired 
or  uninspired  —  this  Christ  holds  ^lp  His  life 
as  the  Model  Life.  He  claims  to  be  the  Ideal 
Man.  His  unparalleled  audacity  —  if  I  may 
use  the  expression  —  is  such  that  he  actually 
stands  up  before  the  entire  world  and  chal- 
lenges criticism. 

His  two  fundamental  laws  arrest  and  com- 
mand our  attention  :— 

No  man  can  escape  his  own  record. 

Every  man  must  face  some  kind  of  a 
judgment. 

Laws  irrevocable,  and  absolutely  true  in 
business,  politics,  morals,  and  every-day  life. 

With  such  a  life,  then,  for  an  example,  and 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  *J\ 

with  such  laws  for  a  foundation,  the  Church 
passes  into  the  arena  of  history,  offers 
Christ's 'life  as  an  ideal  for  all  humanity,  and 
Christ's  teachings  as  a  universal  code  of 
morals.  Now  comes  the  test,  the  infallible 
test  of  time  —  time,  into  whose  crucible  all 
impostures  must  go,  and  out  of  which  none 
have  ever  yet  come  unharmed. 

Mark  the  procession  of  the  centuries ! 
Nero  is  Emperor  of  Rome  now,  and  the 
century  closes  with  Trajan  wearing  the  im- 
perial crown.  The  next  century  finds  Marcus 
Aurelius  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  ;  the 
next,  and  Diocletian  is  Emperor ;  and  the 
next  is  ushered  in  by  Constantine  the  Great, 
and  closing  sees  the  Empire  divided.  An- 
other century,  and  Attila  invades  Italy,  and 
Rome  is  plundered  by  the  Vandals  and  is 
recaptured  by  Belisarius  in  the  next.  Then 
comes  the  century  that  sees  Mohammed's 


72  INGERSOLLISM: 


glory,  flight,  and  death,  and  another  that 
closes  with  Charlemagne  preparing  for  his 
coronation  as  Emperor  of  the  West.  The 
next  century  brings  to  Alfred  the  Great  the 
imperial  robes  of  Britain,  and  the  next  finds 
the  house  of  Capet  on  the  throne  of  France. 
A  thousand  years  have  passed  !  Harold  is 
King  of  England  now,  the  battle  of  Hastings 
is  fought,  and  William  the  Conqueror  has 
come.  Another  century,  and  Ireland  is  sub- 
dued, and  King  John  and  his  barons  rule 
England.  Another  passes,  and  the  Ottoman 
Empire  appears.  Another  opens  with  Bruce 
crowned  King  of  Scotland  ;  Bannockburn  is 
fought,  and  Bruce  has  died.  The  next  cen- 
tury sees  Henry  the  Fourth  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  in  the  next  the  battle  of  Agincourt 
is  fought;  Joan  of  Arc  dies  at  the  stake; 
Martin  Luther  is  born  ;  America  is  discov- 
ered ;  modern  history  is  begun  ;  the  light  of 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


73 


universal  intelligence  is  breaking ;  the  cen- 
turies lose  their  distinctness,  and  we  begin 
to  measure  time  by  eras  of  progress  and 
epochs  of  thought,  until  at  last  there  pass 
before  us  the  wonders  of  the  nineteenth 
century  —  and  there,  there  in  the  very  midst 
of  its  glory  and  culture,  in  the  midst  of  its 
millions  of  purposes  and  plans,  in  the  midst 
of  its  engines  and  telegraphs  and  systems 
and  palaces  and  philosophies,  we  find  there 
has  come  through  all  the  blood  and  tears  and 
tyrannies  of  centuries,  "  marching  with  slow 
and  stately  tread  across  the  realms "  and 
across  the  ages,  the  Man-God  —  the  God- 
Man —  the  Christ  of  modern  Christianity; 
and  with  a  gentleness  unutterable  and  a 
majesty  unspeakable,  is  winning  the  heart 
and  moulding  the  character  of  the  man  whom 
we  left  with  naught  for  a  guide  but  the 
consciousness  of  one  Eternal  and  Infinite 


74  INGERSOLLISM: 


Being — yea,  winning  his  heart  and  moulding 
his  character  here  in  this  Western  world  of 
ours,  by  teaching  him  the  two  simple  lessons 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Universal 
Brotherhood  of  Man. 

Think  of  it !-- Eighteen  hundred  years  of 
relentless  criticism,  and  there  lives  not  this 
day  upon  the  face  of  the  globe  an  honest  and 
intelligent  sceptic  who  dare  lay  his  finger 
upon  a  single  point  in  the  character  of  the 
Ideal  Man  and  deny  that  it  is  absolute  moral 
perfection. 

A  question  now — and  then  we  pass  to 
another  branch  of  our  discussion.  Is  this  a 
mere  man  —  this  Ideal  One  —  and  what  is 
there  in  His  religion  and  His  alone  that 
adapts  itself  to  men  of  all  nations,  despite 
the  laws  of  climate  and  of  race  ?  Climatic 
influences,  customs  and  circumstances,  it  is 
said,  shape  religions  and  beliefs  —  and  this 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  75 

broad  generalization  of  modern  philosophy 
has  shaken  the  faith  of  many  an  inquiring 
mind,  as  I  frankly  confess  to  you  it  for  years 
shook  mine.  A  man  is  a  Mohammedan,  we 
are  told,  simply  because  he  is  born  in  Tur- 
key; he  is  a  worshipper  of  Buddha,  or  a  fol- 
lower of  Confucius,  because  he  is  born  in 
India,  China  or  Japan  ;  and  he  is  a  Christian, 
simply  and  only  because  he  is  born  in  Eng- 
land or  North  America.  This  broad  gener- 
alization of  modern  philosophy  to-day  shakes 
the  faith  of  many  candid  and  inquiring  men. 
Now  concede  to  this  law  all  that  Buckle  and 
Draper  have  claimed  for  it  —  for  it  is  from 
Buckle  and  Draper  that  modern  infidelity 
has  derived  its  arguments  upon  this  point - 
concede  to  it  all  these  authors  have  claimed 
for  it,  and  by  it  you  may  perhaps  be  able  to 
explain  why  the  south  of  Europe  should  be 
Roman  Catholic,  while  the  north  became 


76  INGERSOLLISM: 


Protestant,  and  of  that  which  became  Prot- 
estant, Switzerland  and  the  west  of  Europe 
became  Calvinistic,  while  most  of  Germany, 
Sweden,  Denmark  and  Norway  became  Lu- 
theran. By  some  such  natural  law,  it  may 
perhaps  not  be  difficult  to  tell  why  the  Gene- 
van school  of  Calvinism  became  the  model 
for  France,  Holland,  Scotland,  part  of  Eng- 
land, and  consequently  for  North  America. 
By  an  exposition  of  the  laws  which  make  the 
temperament  a  guide  to  the  mental  charac- 
teristics, you  may  perhaps  be  able  to  explain 
why  men  of  sanguine  temperament  may  be 
Methodists,  or  severe  and  thoughtful  men  be 
Presbyterians  ;  those  of  an  analytic  turn  of 
mind  go  to  the  Baptist  theology ;  the  syn- 
thetic to  the  Episcopalian  ;  and  thus  go  on 
and  point  out  the  mental  or  other  peculiari- 
ties of  each  great  denomination.  But  tell  me, 
I  beg,  by  what  natural  law  do  you  explain  it ; 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  77 

tell  me  why  it  is  that  all  the  creeds  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
earth,  unite  in  accepting  the  Ideal  Man  of 
Christianity,  despite  the  laws  of  climate  and 
of  race  ?  I  will  attempt  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion from  the  standpoint  of  a  man  of  the 
world. 

When  we  ask  why  His  can  be  the  only  uni- 
versal religion,  I  look  to  all  other  religions 
and  I  see  written  in  each,  one  word  that  re- 
veals the  cause.  It  is  a  word  more  hateful 
than  that  word  superstition,  on  which  modern 
infidels  concentrate  their  wrath  —  more  hate- 
ful than  the  word  bigotry — more  hateful  than 
the  word  cruelty  —  more  hateful  than  the 
word  oppression  —  for  it  is  the  word  that 
sums  them  all,  superstition,  bigotry,  cruelty, 
and  oppression,  and  that  word  is  CASTE. 

Go  to  China,  to  India,  to  Turkey,  or  to  Per- 
sia, and  in  each  nation  religion  becomes  the 


78  INGERSOLLISM: 


synonym  of  Caste.  There%  man  is  taught 
that  there  is  much  in  God  for  the  worshipper 
to  adore  ;  here,  the  worshipper  is  taught  that 
there  is  something  in  man,  in  every  man, 
worthy  the  attention  of  God  himself.  There, 
man  is  taught  that  there  are  inequalities 
among  men  ;  here,  men  are  taught  that  all 
are  equal  before  the  Infinite. 

In  my  judgment  as  a  politician,  looking  at 
the  matter  purely  from  the  standpoint  of 
political  philosophy,  the  commanding  feature 
of  Christ's  philosophy  is  that  no  man,  however 
rich  or  however  poor,  however  wise  or  how- 
ever ignorant,  is  to  be  despised  ;  and  if  the 
wise  and  the  rich  hate  the  ignorant  and  the 
poor,  or  the  ignorant  and  the  poor  hate  the 
wise  and  the  rich,  the  hater  stands  condemned. 

To  my  mind,  the  grand  central  thought  of 
Christianity  is  that  every  living  soul  of  every 
race,  of  every  clime,  of  every  creed,  of  every 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  Jg 

condition,  of  every  color  —  every  living  soul 
-  is  worth  a  kingdom  ! 

I  can  read  between  the  lines  on  every  page 
of  the  four  biographies  of  the  Nazarene,  that 
the  great  heart  of  the  Infinite  would  willingly 
suffer  an  age  of  agony  for  the  sake  of  the 
humblest  man  or  woman  in  all  the  world. 

Who  can  measure  the  effect  upon  society 
of  this  doctrine  ?  Who  can  estimate  its 
power  for  good  ?  Why,  more  of  charity  and 
benevolence,  and  more  of  social  and  intellect- 
ual progress,  may  be  found  in  that  one  pecul- 
iar feature  of  Christianity  than  in  all  other 
systems  and  philosophies  combined.  And 
here  I  challenge  Infidelity  to  name  an  era  or 
a  school  in  which  this  doctrine  was  taught  as 
a  duty  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  Ideal  Man. 
I  grant  you  that  the  very  poor,  in  different 
ages  prior  to  the  new  era,  had  their  physical 
necessities  cared  for ;  but  no  system  ever  be- 


8O  INGERSOLLISM: 


fore  ran  the  whole  gamut  of  social  gradation, 
from  the  highest  note  down  to  the  lowest, 
and  pronounced  them  all  divine.  I  say  all;  for 
midway  between  poverty  and  wealth  surges 
the  great  ocean  of  humanity,  over  whose 
troubled  waters  still  walks  the  Ideal  Man, 
and  as  of  old  says,  "  Peace,  be  still." 

Now  take  the  fact  that  the  Author  of 
Christianity  put  this  unparalleled  estimate 
upon  human  nature,  and  put  it,  too,  upon  a 
human  nature  capable  of  fastening  his  body 
like  a  malefactor's  to  a  wooden  cross,  and 
you  have  the  peculiar  thought  in  the  Chris- 
tian system  which  gives  it  a  distinctive  and 
universal  genius. 

Now  to  our  other  question  —  Is  the  Author 
and  Exponent  of  this  wonderful  system 
merely  a  man?  I  need  not  tell  you  that  such 
a  question  —  a  question  that  has  filled  whole 
libraries  and  engaged  the  life-long  labors  of 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  8 1 

thousands  of  earth's  greatest  scholars  —  can- 
not be  answered,  and  the  answer  placed  be- 
yond cavil,  in  a  single  lecture  nor  in  a  single 
volume.  Go,  therefore,  in  this  passing  hour 
and  avail  yourself  of  the  conclusions  of 
another,  but  nevertheless  conclusions  which 
your  judgment  shall  respect  when  to-morrow 
you  bring  them  to  the  test  of  reason  and  re- 
jection. As  the  lawyers  say,  let  us  submit 
the  question  to  an  expert.  And  why  not  ? 
Property  and  life  itself  hang  every  day  in  our 
courts  upon  such  testimony.  But  where  shall 
we  find  one  so  competent  and  yet  so  disinter- 
ested that  the  highest  intellects  in  the  infidel 
world  will  admit  him  to  the  witness-stand  ?  — 
where  one  who  has  gone  into  many  countries, 
read  with  care  the  histories  of  all  nations,  in- 
vestigated all  religions,  and  studied  and  un- 
derstood, as  no  other  man,  the  secret  springs 
of  human  action? — where  one  who  brought 


82  INGERSOLLISM: 


to  the  investigation  of  social  laws  and  cus- 
toms a  genius  which  the  whole  world  shall 
recognize,  a  genius  free  from  bias  in  favor  of 
any  creed  or  sect,  and  who  shall  testify  with 
a  spirit  absolutely  disinterested  ?  Such  a 
one  we  have,  and  he  bears  the  greatest  of 
all  names  in  modern  history :  the  name  of 
Napoleon  !  Let  me  remind  you  now  that  in 
Napoleon's  lifetime  Volney  had  lived,  Hume 
had  lived,  Holbach  and  Rousseau  had  lived, 
Voltaire  had  lived,  and  Paine  wrote  his  "Age 
of  Reason  "  and  had  lived  in  Paris  ten  years 
before  Napoleon  became  Emperor  of  the 
French.  The  philosophies  of  all  these  men 
passed  before  him  in  review.  In  brief,  let  me 
remind  you  that  Napoleon  lived  in  an  infidel 
age,  when  literature  breathed  the  spirit  of 
infidelity,  and  when  legislation,  art,  and  cus- 
toms, all  bore  the  impress  of  the  master  minds 
of  infidelity. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  83 

His  wonderful  career  had  closed,  and  at  St. 
Helena  no  cause  for  dissimulation  remained. 
An  ambitious,  cruel,  heartless,  wicked  man, 
this  Napoleon  had  been ;  a  tyrant,  a  despot, 
a  scourge,  the  enemy  of  his  race,  if  you  will ; 
but  with  it  all,  he  possessed  an  intellect  as 
penetrating  and  profound  as  ever  human 
being  was  gifted  with.  Conclusions  stamped 
with  ^  the  approval  of  his  great  mind  are 
themselves  arguments.  But  listen  to  the 
testimony,  and  hear  not  only  the  conclusions 
but  the  arguments  of  that  mind.  Indulge 
me,  then,  for  a  single  moment,  while  I  merely 
repeat  the  words  that  fell  from  him.  Turn- 
ing from  a  reverie,  he  said  to  his  favorite 
general  and  companion  : 

"  I  know  men,  Bertrand,  and  I  tell  you  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  man.  Superficial  minds 
see  a  resemblance  between  Christ  and  the 
gods  of  other  religions.  That  resemblance 


84  INGERSOLLISM: 

does  not  exist.  *  *  *  Paganism  was  never 
accepted  as  truth  by  the  wise  men  of  Greece, 
by  Socrates,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Anaxagoras, 
nor  Pericles;  but  upon  the  other  side,  the 
loftiest  intellects  have  had  a  living  faith  in 
the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, —  not  only  Bos- 
suet  and  Fenelon,  who  were  preachers,  but 
Descartes  and  Newton,  Leibnitz  and  Pascal, 
Corneille  and  Racine,  Charlemagne  and 
Louis  XIV.  Paganism  is  the  work  of 
man.  What  do  their  gods  know  more  than 
other  mortals — these  priests  of  India  or  of 
Memphis — this  Confucius,  this  Mohammed  ? 
Absolutely  nothing.  *  *  *  Are  these  gods 
and  these  religions  to  be  compared  with 
Christianity?  As  for  me,  I  say — No!  I 
summon  the  entire  Olympus  of  the  gods  to 
my  tribunal.  I — Napoleon — judge  the  gods. 
The  gods  'of  China  and  of  India,  of  Athens 
and  of  Rome,  have  nothing  which  can  over- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  85 

awe  me.  *  *  *  I  see  in  Lycurgus,  Numa, 
and  Mohammed,  only  legislators  who  sought 
the  best  solution  of  the  social  problem.  I 
see  nothing  which  reveals  divinity.  I  recog- 
nize the  gods  and  these  great  men  as  beings 
like  myself.  They  performed  a  lofty  part  in 
their  times,  as  I  have  done.  There  are  many 
resemblances  between  them  and  myself,  foi- 
bles and  errors,  allying  them  to  me  and  to 
humanity.  It  is  not  so  with  Christ.  Every- 
thing in  Him  astonishes  me.  His  spirit  over- 
awes me  and  His  will  confounds  me.  He  is  a 
being  by  himself.  His  birth  and  the  history 
of  His  life,  the  profundity  of  His  doctrine, 
which  grapples  with  the  mightiest  difficulties, 
and  is  of  those  difficulties  the  most  admira- 
ble solution,  His  Gospel,  His  apparition,  His 
empire,  everything  is  to  me  a  prodigy,  an 
insoluble  mystery,  a  mystery  which  is  there 
before  my  eyes,  a  mystery  which  I  neither 


86  INGERSOLLISM: 


can  deny  nor  explain.  *  *  *  One  can  abso- 
lutely find  nowhere  but  in  Him  alone  the 
imitation  or  the  example  of  His  life.  The 
nearer  I  approach,  the  more  carefully  I  ex- 
amine, everything  is  above  me,  everything 
remains  grand,  of  a  grandeur  which  over- 
powers. *  *  *  I  search  in  vain  in  history 
to  find  a  parallel  to  Jesus  Christ,  or  anything 
which  can  approach  the  Gospel.  Neither  his- 
tory nor  humanity  nor  the  ages  can  offer  me 
anything  with  which  I  am  able  to  compare 
it  or  explain  it.  The  more  I  consider  that 
Gospel  the  more  I  am  assured  that  there  is 
nothing  there  which  is  not  beyond  the  march 
of  events  and  above  the  human  mind.  Who 
but  God  could  produce  that  style  of  perfec- 
tion, equally  exclusive  and  original  ? 
In  every  other  existence  but  that  of  Christ, 
how  many  imperfections  !  Where  is  the 
character  which  has  not  yielded,  vanquished 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  87 

by  obstacles  ?  Where  is  the  individual  who 
has  never  been  governed  by  circumstances 
or  places,  who  has  never  succumbed  to  the 
influence  of  the  times,  who  has  never  com- 
pounded with  any  customs  or  passions  ? 
From  the  first  day  to  the  last,  He  is  the 
same,  always  the  same,  majestic  and  simple, 
infinitely  firm  and  infinitely  gentle.  *  *  * 
Christ  speaks,  and  at  once  generations  be- 
come His  by  stricter,  closer  ties  than  those 
of  blood.  I  have  so  inspired  multitudes  that 
they  would  die  for  me.  But  after  all,  my 
presence  was  necessary.  *  Such  is 

Christianity,  the  only  religion  which  destroys 
sectional  prejudice,  the  only  one  which  is 
purely  spiritual,  in  fine  the  only  one  which 
assigns  to  all,  without  distinction,  for  a  true 
country,  the  bosom  of  the  Creator,  God. 
Christ  proved  that  He  was  the  Son  of  the 
Eternal  by  His  disregard  of  Time.  All  His 


INGERSOLLISM: 


doctrines  signify  one  and  the  same  thing, 
ETERNITY.  *  *  *  Behold  the  destiny  near 
at  hand  of  him  who  has  been  called  the  great 
Napoleon !  What  an  abyss  between  my  mis- 
ery and  the  eternal  reign  of  Christ,  which  is 
proclaimed,  loved,  adored,  and  which  is  ex- 
tending over  all  the  earth  !  Is  this  to  die  ? 
Is  it  not  rather  to  live?  The  death  of  Christ! 
It  is  the  death  of  a  God.  *  *  *  Bertrand, 
if  you  do  not  perceive  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
God,  very  well  —  then  I  did  wrong  to  make 
you  a  general." 

Scoffer  and  sceptic  may  rise  now  and  de- 
nounce the  ambition  and  countless  crimes  of 
this  witness.  But  his  discernment,  his  pene- 
tration, his  judgment,  his  knowledge  of  men 
and  motives,  his  genius,  they  dare  not  deny. 
There,  then,  upon  that  platform  and  upon 
that,  a  short  time  ago  in  Washington  City, 
still  later  in  Chicago,  and  to-morrow  else- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW  89 

where,  is  Ingersoll  sneering  at  the  religion 
of  Christ.  Yonder  at  St.  Helena,  solemnly 
confessing  Christ  to  be  above  humanity, 
calmly  sits  the  prodigy  of  earth,  autocrat  of 
autocrats,  genius  incarnate,  the  intellectual 
wonder  of  the  world;  and  let  Ingersoll  and 
his  followers  profit  by  the  comparison. 

Permit  me  here  a  brief  digression.  Many 
of  you  are  familiar  with  the  arguments  of 
Strauss  and  Renan  and  others  of  the  school 
those  writers  represent.  Admitting  that 
Jesus  Christ  existed,  they  allege,  however, 
that  there  is  so  much  of  myth  and  legend 
and  tradition  surrounding  His  life  and  inter- 
mingled with  His  teachings,  that  Christianity 
is  at  best  a  mythical,  legendary,  and  tradi- 
tional affair.  Admitting  further  that  Christ 
was  a  good  man,  yet  they  tell  us  He  was 
invested  by  His  enthusiastic  followers  with 
attributes  He  did  not  possess.  We  are  fur- 


go  INGER  SOLLISM : 


ther  told  that  there  is  much  in  Christianity 
that  is  not  new;  that  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception is  an  idea  hundreds  of  years  older 
than  the  Christian  religion ;  that  Krishna, 
several  centuries  before  Christ,  was  born  of 
a  virgin;  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is 
older  than  Christianity ;  and  that  scattered 
here  and  there  through  the  older  religions 
of  the  world  are  other  fragments  of  Christian 
doctrines  and  beliefs.  Much  of  all  this  is 
true,  and  upon  these  truths  Rationalism  rears 
an  argument  to  the  effect  that  Christianity 
is  simply  an  aggregation  —  a  crystallization 
around  Christ  —  of  the  fragments  scattered 

o 

through  older  religions;  that  it  is  largely 
mythical  and  legendary  in  its  origin,  and 
will  not  bear  the  analysis  of  advanced  and 
critical  scholarship. 

At  one  time  this   reasoning  set  me  adrift 
for  awhile,  and  profounder  men  than   I  have 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  91 

had  the  same  experience.  I  allude  to  this 
phase  of  infidelity,  not  to  enter  upon  a  refuta- 
tion of  it,  but  to  give  you  an  example  of  the 
logic  it  employs,  and  by  that  example  to  illus- 
trate the  value  of  such  reasoning. 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  the  old  Pythago- 
rean doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls, 
let  us  imagine  that  the  spirit  of  Ernst  Renan 
shall  pass  into  sqme  historian  who  three  or 
five  hundred  years  hence  will  sit  down  to 
write  the  history  of  our  country  and  especially 
of  these  later  times.  He  begins  by  saying 
we  are  now  a  nation  of  two  hundred  millions 
of  people  ;  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  we  were  only  forty  millions  ;  now  we 
have  a  grand  federation  of  one  hundred  states, 
then  we  had  only  thirty-eight ;  then  the  re- 
public was  just  emerging  from  its  infancy, 
now  it  surpasses  in  grandeur  the  fondest 
dreams  of  its  earlier  statesmen.  What  caused 


9  2  INGER  SOLLISM : 

this  wondrous  growth,  this  marvellous  devel- 
opment ?  Some  of  our  people  once  believed 
—  and,  indeed,  the  story  is  current  still — that 
in  those  days  an  institution  known  as  human 
slavery  existed  in  America,  an  institution 
under  which  human  beings  were  owned  and 
bartered  as  cattle,  and  that  under  its  blight- 
ing influences  the  growth  of  our  nation  was 
retarded  and  social  progress  held  in  check. 
Further  the  story  runs,  that  between  the  years 
1860  and  1870  a  man  named  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  raised  up  by  the  people  of  the  North 
and  made  their  leader ;  that  by  his  side,  as 
aid  and  counsellor,  was  a  man  named  Hanni- 
bal Hamlin  ;  that  these  men  called  around 
them  the  people  of  twenty-eight  states,  and 
went  forth  and  made  war  upon  the  people  of 
the  other  states,  won  great  victories,  and 
wiped  from  the  face  of  the  land  the  stain  of 
slavery.  Thereupon  the  upward  and  onward 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  93 

progress  of  our  nation  immediately  became 
wonderful  in  rapidity,  until  at  last  we  have 
grown  beyond  all  that  ever  patriot  hoped  for. 
This  is  the  story  ;  but  we  are  not  satisfied 
with  it.  It  will  not  bear  analysis.  Later 
investigation  convinces  us  that  it  is  simply  an 
aggregation  of  fragmentary  truths  scattered 
through  history.  That  such  a  person  as  Lin- 
coln existed  may  be  true,  but  we  feel  war- 
ranted in  saying  that  his  enthusiastic  admirers 
have  invested  him  with  qualities  he  did  not 
possess.  Let  us  look  at  this  tradition  in  the 
light  of  critical  scholarship.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln !  Why,  the  very  first  syllables  of  his  name 
-  Abra  —  furnish  a  clue  to  the  mythical  or 
legendary  character  of  the  whole  story.  The 
word  Abram  in  the  original  means  mighty 
father,  but  was  frequently  used  to  signify 
benefactor.  A  ray  of  light  falls  on  the  legen- 
dary nature  of  the  story;  Abram— benefactor. 


94  INGERSOLLISM : 


Let  us  go  a  step  further.  We  have  recently 
discovered  that  in  those  times,  among  all 
English-speaking  people,  the  word  Ham  stood 
synonymous  with  the  word  slave,  and  that 
slaves  were  frequently  called  the  sons  of 
Ham.  We  at  once  perceive  that  the  mythi- 
cal or  symbolic  significance  of  the  name  Abra- 
ham is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  remarkable 
discovery  that  Abraham  means  Abra,  bene- 
factor ;  Ham — slave  :  benefactor  of  the  slave. 
Now  this  significant  fact  must  cast  a  doubt 
upon  the  story  in  the  mind  of  every  critical 
scholar.  But  still  further.  Hannibal  Ham- 
lin !  We  positively  deny  the  existence  of 
any  such  person.  We  find  no  authentic  trace 
of  him  before  that  war,  and  his  career  ended 
when  that  war  closed.  He  drops  out  of  the 
story  as  suddenly  as  he  enters  it.  A  moment's 
analysis  will  convince  the  most  sceptical.  His 
name  furnishes  conclusive  proof.  The  first 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  95 

syllable  of  his  name,  Ham,  is  the  last  syllable 
of  Abraham,  and  the  second  syllable  of  his 
name,  lin,  is  the  first  syllable  of  Lincoln  ;  so 
we  discover  that  the  name  Hamlin  is  taken 
bodily  out  of  the  middle  of  the  name  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  the  people  believe  his  given 
name  was  Hannibal  because  those  times  were 
war  times,  and  the  story  is  a  war  legend,  and 
Hannibal  had  been  known  for  many  centuries 
as  a  great  warrior  !  Can  any  critical  scholar 
now  doubt  the  mythical  origin  of  the  story  ? 
But  still  further:  It  is  said  that  those  two 
men  led  the  people  of  twenty-eight  states. 
Count  the  letters  in  the  name,  Abraham 
Lincoln  ;  there  are  fourteen.  Count  the 
letters  in  the  name,  Hannibal  Hamlin  ;  there 
are  fourteen.  Combine  the  two  and  there 
are  twenty-eight  !  Who  believes  that  this 
is  mere  accident,  and  that  the  twenty-eight 
letters  are  not  designed  to  stand  for  the 


96  1NGERSOLLISM : 


twenty-eight  states  that  waged  the  war,  and 
who  can  fail  to  see  in  this,  traces  of  that 
ancient  superstition  which  attributed  magical 
power  to  the  relation  which  numbers  bore  to 
names  and  events  ? 

Thus  dissecting  this  story,  we  find  it  doubt- 
ful, mythical,  traditional,  legendary,  and,  as 
free-thinkers,  as  rational  independent  investi- 
gators, we  reject  it,  doubt  if  slavery  ever 
existed,  believe  the  war  a  myth,  and  deny 
that  Lincoln  and  Hamlin  ever  lived  ! 

This  ludicrous  analysis  is,  I  submit,  as 
good  an  argument  as  Renan's  against  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  our  remote  descendants  shall, 
if  they  be  bold  free-thinkers,  capable  of  inde- 
pendent thought,  and  brave  enough  to  spurn 
the  teachings  of  priest  and  preacher,  consign 
to  the  limbo  of  exploded  superstitions  the 
story  of  the  war  for  freedom  ;  and  one  of  the 
grand  names  of  the  age  —  the  name  of 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW,  gj 

Lincoln,  a  name  we  had  believed  immortal  — 
shall    be   quietly  dismissed    with   a   scholarly 
and  intellectual  sneer. 

I  now  assert  that  we  have  found  enough 
of  argument  to  justify  us  in  holding  true 
two  fundamental  beliefs  : 

First  —  God  exists. 
-     Second  —  Christ  is  a  God-given   ideal. 

From  these  two  facts,  a  third  must  logi- 
cally issue.  If  Christ  be  God-given,  so  much 
of  that  book  we  found  and  called  the  Bible 
as  faithfully  records  his  works  and  truthfully 
reports  his  sayings  must  be  true.  There  can 
be  no  escape  from  this  conclusion.  I  reverse 
the  ordinary  process  of  reasoning,  and  sum 
the  argument  up  in  what  to  my  mind  is  now 
an  unanswerable  sentence,  and  say  —  what- 
ever is  true  of  a  God-given  Christ  must  be 
God-given  truth.  That  much  of  the  Bible  is 


9  8  INGERSOLLISM : 


enough.  Now  let  theologians  say  how  much 
that  excludes,  or  let  them  say  that  it  includes 
it  all  —  it  matters  not  to  me;  I  say  that  so 
much  of  that  book  as  bears  upon  the  Ideal 
Man,  and  so  much  of  that  book  as  the  Ideal 
Man  has  set  the  seal  of  his  approval  on,  we 
may  safely  accept  as  a  moral  teacher. 

The  great  want  in  the  heart  and  brain  of 
many  thinking  men,  when  they  come  to  the 
Bible,  is  antecedent  ground  for  belief  in  its 
truthfulness.  I  argue,  therefore,  not  from 
the  Bible  to  Christ,  but  from  Christ  to  the 
Bible.  I  do  not  believe  in  Christ  because  of 
the  Bible,  but  I  believe  in  the  Bible  because 
of  Christ. 

Remembering  that  his  maxims  and  teach- 
ings, when  faithfully  applied,  invariably  solve 
every  moral  problem  of  life,  and  contem- 
plating the  acknowledged  fact  that  those 
same  teachings,  when  viewed  simply  as  an 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIE  W.  99 

ethical  and  philosophical  system,  exhibit  wis- 
dom far  beyond  any  known  among  men,  I  am 
compelled  to  say,  He  indeed  is  the  infallible 
Teacher. 

The  infallibility  of  Christ  is  a  broader  and 
stronger  argument  for  the  Book  than  all  the 
theories  of  inspiration  that  men  have  yet 
devised.  The  seal  of  His  approval  is,  even 
on  rationalistic  ground,  a  sufficient  warrant 
for  our  acceptance  of  that  Book.  Such  sur- 
passing wisdom  as  His  cannot  be  mistaken- 
such  surpassing  purity  and  love  cannot  de- 
ceive us.  The  impress  of  His  royal  signet 
has  placed  the  writings  of  Moses  and  all  the 
prophets  where  they  cannot  fall  until  He,  the 
Christ,  Himself  has  fallen. 

So  we  come  at  last  to  God,  Christ,  and  the 
Bible,  and  as  rational  men  have  reason  for 
the  faith  that  is  in  us. 


I OO  INGERSOLLISM ; 


Now  what  interest  have  we  who  come  from 
counting-room  and  store-room,  from  legisla- 
tive halls  and  boards  of  trade,  and  from  the 
various  industrial  walks  of  life,  what  interest 
have  we  in  the  aggregate  of  religious  teach- 
ings and  influences  to  which  I  have  already 
referred  as  embodied  in  and  derived  from  the 
Bible  ?  I  do  not  mean  an  interest  so  far  as 
they  bear  upon  what  is  called  "  Salvation," 
but  I  have  come  to  the  practical  view,  and  I 
mean  an  interest  so  far  as  our  immediate 
objects  are  concerned. 

What  are  those  objects  ?  I  think  they 
may  be  comprehended  in  three  things  : 

I.  As  citizens,  a  stable  and   pure  govern- 
ment. 

II.  As    business    men,    the    acquisition    of 
property. 

III.  As  social  beings,  happy  homes. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  IQI 

We  can  best  determine  the  bearing  of  the 
church  upon  these  three  great  objects  of  life 
by  considering  the  legitimate  results  of  Inger- 
sollism.  Government,  Property,  and  Home 
shall  now  constitute  our  trinity,  the  business 
man's  trinity,  neither  element  self-existent,  all 
co-dependent ;  and  when  properly  combined 
and  each  properly  adjusted  in  all  its  relations 
to  the  other,  we  may  call  the  result  Civiliza- 
tion. In  this  trinity  may  be  foimd  all  the 
elements  of  business,  society,  and  politics. 

Let  us  now  take  the  Ingersoll  creed, 
"  Happiness  in  this  life,"  for  our  creed  too. 
Unquestionably  the  most  happiness  is  de- 
rived from  the  highest  civilization,  and  the 
highest  civilization  is  obtained  only  when 
Government,  Property,  and  Home  are  each 
and  all  conserved.  In  the  name,  then,  of  this 
trinity  I  have  come  to  arraign  and  denounce 
Ingersoll's  teachings  as  a  crime  against  gov- 


I O  2  INGERSOLLISM : 


ernment  and  law  ;  as  a  crime  against  com- 
merce and  trade ;  as  a  crime  against 
civilization  ;  and,  in  one  word,  as  a  crime 
against  humanity. 

Now  take  human  nature  as  it  is  —  and  in 
this  way  alone  may  we  deal  with  social 
problems  —  take  human  nature  as  it  is,  and 
can  you  conceive  of  free  government  and 
civil  law  existing  among,  say  fifty  millions 
of  people,  who  have  none  of  the  restraints  of 
religious  teaching  and  influence  about  them  ? 
Remember,  it  is  not  alone  to  compel  your 
profound  philosopher  to  be  just,  that  civil 
government,  and  civil  law  with  all  its  com- 
plex variations,  are  instituted.  Socrates, 
Aristotle,  and  Solon  may  need  neither  civil 
government  nor  civil  law  ;  but  the  ever  per- 
plexing question  which  haunts  your  wise 
statesman  and  your  honest  politician  is,  What 
of  the  millions  ? 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  103 

The  scholar  in  his  easy  chair  may  specu- 
late and  reason  away  all  religion,  and  yet  go 
out  into  the  world  and  perhaps  for  a  time  be 
an  honest  and  just  man.  The  intuitive 
decision  of  bright  and  thorough-edged  intel- 
lect may  part  error  from  crime,  and  the  silver 
flow  of  a  subtle-paced  counsel  may  make  safe 
citizens  of  Plato,  Voltaire,  and  Ingersoll. 
But  what  of  the  hewer  of  wood,  whose  life 
is  a  struggle  for  bread,  raiment,  and  shelter, 
for  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  little  ones  ?  We 
often  speak  of  the  hewer  of  wood  but  when 
we  think  of  him  in  relation  to  time  and 
opportunity  for  acquiring  any  other  than  the 
simple  creed  of  Bible-taught  morality,  how 
many  of  us  become  hewers  of  wood  —  me- 
chanics, farmers,  merchants,  tradesmen,  pro- 
fessional men,  and  all  the  toilers  of  the 
thousand  other  laborious  callings  known 
among  men  ?  What  shall  I  say  of  the  mill- 


INGERSOLLISM . 


ions — the  people  —  that  surging,  boundless 
ocean  of  humanity  we  call  the  masses?  In- 
deed, my  sceptical  friend,  the  impenetrable 
wall  of  an  iron  necessity  shuts  off  from  the 
millions  much  of  the  Infidel's  creed  —  reason, 
observation,  and  experience.  Ninety  out  of 
every  hundred  men,  nay,  more,  pass  almost 
every  waking  hour  in  a  struggle  for  bread. 
"Thou  shalt "  and  "Thou  shalt  not"  may  be 
laws  to  which  the  deductive  method  of  Aris- 
totle or  the  inductive  method  of  Bacon  may 
bring  your  philosopher  for  rules  of  action, 
but  what  knowledge  of  those  rules  can  be 
acquired  through  philosophic  reasoning  by 
those  of  us  who  are  bound  to  the  ever- 
revolving  wheel  of  unceasing  toil  ? 

Will  your  philosophers  come  and  teach  us  ? 
A  doubtful  proposition  —  but  grant  it.  Ah, 
in  so  doing  you  simply  substitute  one  order 
of  priests  for  another  —  a  philosophic  in  lieu 


FROM  A  SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  1 05 

of  a  theologic  priesthood  ;  and  your  hated 
order  of  priest  and  preacher  will  still  remain  ! 
And  what  if  some  man  who  in  the  opinion  of 
the  masses  is  wiser  than  your  philosopher 
shall  some  day  come  and  say  the  new  priest- 
hood are  hypocrites  and  sponges  all  ?  Who 
shall  say  him  nay  ?  Where  is  your  arbiter  ? 
Let  us  destroy  the  Bible  and  annihilate  among 
men  all  consciousness  of  God,  and  I  will  grant 
you  we  may  do  well  enough,  we  and  our  chil- 
dren, and  perhaps  our  children's  children. 
The  moral  impetus  given  by  Christianity  to 
civilization  might,  and  doubtless  would,  be 
projected  on  into  the  next  fifty  or  seventy-five 
years.  But  what  then?  Grant  that  our  philos- 
ophers will  hold  their  self-taught  code  of 
morals  ;  but  remember  that  the  millions,  your 
children  and  your  children's  children,  will 
have  no  God  —  no  Bible  —  no  Religion. 
And  right  here  let  us  have  no  self-decep- 


1 06  INGERSOLLISM: 


tion.  The  millions  were  hewers  of  wood  yes- 
terday, as  many  millions  are  hewers  of  wood 
to-day,  and  as  many  millions  more  will  be 
hewers  of  wood  to-morrow.  Genius  and  learn- 
ing and  talents  are  not  inheritable,  and  wealth 
rarely  reaches  its  second  generation.  While 
storm  and  flood  and  pestilence  shall  come 
and  go,  while  improvidence  and  disease  and 
calamity  in  all  its  myriad  forms  beset  the 
paths  of  the  human  race,  the  millions  will 
still  be  hewers  of  wood.  The  children  prat- 
tling now  around  the  knee  of  philosopher  and 
millionaire  will  go  down  into  the  depths  to 
struggle  up  again  or  die  as  toilers.  It  is  one 
of  the  saddest  facts  in  human  history.  Build 
as  you  will,  accumulate  as  you  may,  struggle 
as  only  strong  and  true  men  can  struggle  for 
those  they  hold  dear,  yet  to  this  complexion 
it  must  come  at  last ;  there  are  but  one  or 
two  coffins,  one  or  two  little  grass-covered 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  1 07 

mounds  of  earth,  between  luxury  and  toil. 
Call  it  fate,  call  it  God's  curse  in  Eden,  call 
it  what  you  will :  it  is  an  inexorable  fact. 

And  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves  in  another 
view.  Let  not  the  increase  of  national  wealth, 
the  growth  of  colleges  and  schools,  and  the 
progress  of  scientific  thought,  flatter  us  with 
the  fancy  that  while  all  these  change  labor  in 
kind  they  change  it  also  in  degree.  Grant 
that  eight-hour  laws,  steam  engines,  and  tele- 
graphs, may  shorten  a  day's  labor  ;  yet  all  the 
more  intense  does  that  labor  become,  and  all 
the  more  of  rest  must  follow. 

Then  once  more  I  ask  you,  what  of  the 
millions  —  what  of  the  people  —  what  of  your 
children's  children,  with  no  consciousness  of 
God,  and  robbed  by  infidelity  of  the  simple 
but  sublime  creed  of  Bible-taught  morality  ? 

Do  you  ask  me  now  for  an  application  of 
all  this  to  the  question  of  civil  government  ? 


1 08  INGERSOLLISM: 


Then  I  ask  you,  does  not  all  history  teach 
you  that  "  Thou  shalt  "  and  "  Thou  shalt  not  " 
are  laws  written  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
long  before  they  are  ever  written  on  the 
pages  of  our  statute  books  ?  Do  you  not 
know  that  if  those  laws  were  not  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  —  not  alone  in  the  hearts  of 
your  philosophers,  but  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people  —  they  would  not  be  on  the  pages  of 
our  statutes,  and  when  they  are  erased  from 
the  hearts  of  the  people  they  will  be  erased 
from  the  statutes  ?  Remember  that  all  legis- 
lation, be  the  government  free  or  despotic,  is 
in  its  last  results  the  will  of  the  people.  Here 
an  election  announces  that  will ;  yonder  it 
requires  a  revolution  ;  but  in  the  end,  in  all 
governments,  the  voice  of  the  law  is  the  voice 
of  the  people.  Oh,  the  power,  the  terrible 
power,  of  the  people  !  Before  the  people, 
thrones  and  empires  are  baubles,  and  govern- 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.          109 

ments  and  armies  are  pigmies  and  playthings. 
Arouse  the  people,  and  the  warnings  of  phi- 
losophers are  heeded  as  little  as  the  notes  of 
the  strange  birds  that  fly  before  the  tempest 
are  heeded  by  the  storm  king  !  I  appeal  to 
you  as  the  champion  of  no  sect,  the  repre- 
sentative of  no  denomination,  the  exponent 
of  no  creed  —  but  as  a  business  man,  as  a 
citizen,  and  I  believe  as  a  patriot ;  and  in  the 
name  of  all  history  I  implore  you  to  remem- 
ber that  the  only  power  that  can  restrain  and 
safely  guide  ourselves  and  the  millions  is  the 
unseen  but  mighty  power  of  "  THUS  SAITH 
THE  LORD  GOD  ALMIGHTY." 

While  universal  infidelity  must  work  ruin 
to  all  civil  government,  yet  it  is  peculiarly 
true  of  a  republic,  where  the  relations  of  the 
people  to  the  government  are  so  direct  and 
immediate.  Here  universal  infidelity  means 
in  its  first  results  an  armed  centralization. 


HO  INGERSOLLISM. 


Why  ?  Because  a  people  without  a  God  must 
have  a  bayonet.  Social  order  with  Atheism 
is  a  paradox,  unless  grounded  on  Catling  guns 
and  repeating  rifles.  Remove  the  restraints 
of  religion,  and  you  must  immediately 
strengthen  the  arm  of  the  civil  power  for 
your  own  protection.  The  church  is  to-day 
the  great  conservator  of  the  peace.  There  is 
more  power  for  the  public  safety  in  the  whis- 
pered utterances  of  a  God-fearing  priest  or 
preacher  than  in  all  your  batteries  and  iron- 
clads. 

I  repeat,  universal  infidelity  means  central- 
ization, centralization  means  despotism,  des- 
potism means  ultimate  revolution  ;  and  once 
let  revolution  come,  and  let  there  be  in  the 
minds  of  fifty  millions  of  people  no  God,  and 
-well,  the  French  people  saw  such  a  sight 
once,  and  though  it  is  near  a  hundred  years 
ago,  civilization  shudders  as  it  recalls  the 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  \  \  \ 

time  when  Ingersollism  ruled  France.  Inger- 
soll  may  be,  in  truth  is  —  and  as  an  Illinoisan 
I  have  said  it  East  and  West  with  pride  —  a 
patriot ;  but  Ingersollism  is  high  treason  to 
all  civil  government,  and  high  treason  to  all 
civil  law. 

Consider  now  the  second  element  in  our 
trinity —  Property. 

The  very  highest  point  that  Infidelity  can 
reach  here  is  the  time-worn  maxim,  "  Honesty 
is  the  best  policy."  That  maxim,  it  is  true, 
is  the  result  of  observation  and  experience, 
and  may  indeed  be  confirmed  by  a  process 
of  philosophic  reasoning.  But  what  concep- 
tion of  honesty  shall  the  man  have,  young  or 
old,  whose  observation  and  experience  are 
not  wide  enough  to  teach  him  that  honesty 
is  the  best  policy  ?  I  ask  you  as  business 
men,  is  it  that  maxim,  or  is  it  the  training 
and  influence,  remote  or  direct,  of  Bible- 


I  I  2  INGERSOLLISM: 


taught  fathers  and  mothers,  that  give  you 
to-day  a  trustworthy  class  of  young  employes, 
clerks,  salesmen,  messengers  and  all  ?  Which 
commands  your  confidence  to-day,  a  young 
man's  character  founded  on  philosophy  based 
upon  his  reason,  observation,  and  experience, 
or  a  young  man's  character  based  upon  a  con- 
science ?  Infidelity,  then,  is  a  crime  against 
business  and  against  trade. 

Ingersoll  annihilates  conscience.  Jf  Her- 
bert Spencer,  with  all  his  ethical  data,  fails  to 
find  a  sure  foundation  for  conscience,  what 
foundation  is  left  among  the  sweeping  nega- 
tions of  Ingersollism  ?  Commerce  without 
conscience  is  a  vampire.  Gambling  is  a  fine 
art  with  conscience  left  out.  Conscience 
makes  bank  stock  marketable.  Confidence 
and  conscience  are  synonyms  in  the  world  of 
trade.  Infidel  philosophy  may  originate  a 
few  wise  maxims,  but  it  can  never  give 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIE  W.  113 

energy,    form,    and   vitality    to    that    soul    of 
business — an  honest  conscience. 

And  once  more,  you  who  come  from  count- 
ing-room and  store-room,  remember  just  here 
the  millions  upon  whose  broad  shoulders  rest 
your  countless  enterprises,  and  whose  strong 
arms  produce  and  exchange  all  your  objects 
of  trade.  Take  away  from  them  the  thought 
-that  you  and  they  stand  equal  in  the  sight 
of  God,  a  thought  given  to  them  alone  by 
Christianity  ;  take  away  from  yourselves  the 
thought  that  they  are  your  equals  in  the 
sight  of  God  ;  take  away  from  them  the  feel- 
ing of  brotherhood,  a  feeling  given  to  them 
alone  by  the  Ideal  One  ;  leave  to  the  toiling 
millions  naught  but  a  toiler's  life  and  a  toil- 
er's grave,  with  no  reckoning  beyond,  where 
the  uneven  things  of  this  most  uneven 
world  may  at  last  be  set  even  ; — go  forth 
with  Ingersoll  and  write  upon  the  gates  of 


I  1 4  INGERSOLLISM: 


your  cities,  "  There  is  no  God,"  and  proclaim 
from  the  walls  that  "  Death  is  an  eternal 
sleep  ;" — in  a  word,  kill,  burn  out,  annihilate 
conscience,  all  the  way  down  to  the  nether- 
most stratum  of  humanity,  and  woe  —  woe 
betide  your  comprehensive  schemes  of  enter- 
prise, and  woe  betide  your  every  accumula- 
tion of  wealth  !  Where  is  the  power  in  this 
land  of  ours  that  shall  then  stay  that  beetle- 
browed  hag,  infidelity's  twin  sister  in  every 
age  and  in  every  land,  infidelity's  twin  sister 
to-day  in  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and 
New  York,  where — it  may  not  be  all  a  dream 
—under  her  foul  incantations  there  is  gath- 
ering a  storm  that  may  some  day  rend  the 
earth  beneath  your  feet  like  an  earthquake- 
infidelity's  twin  sister  upon  every  page  of 
human  history — the  commune  ?  Is  there  no 
significance  for  American  business  men  in 
the  fact  that  but  a  little  while  ago  a  few 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  \  15 

thousand  honest  but  misguided  laborers, 
incited  in  some  of  our  principal  cities  by 
French,  German,  and  American  infidel  com- 
munists, made  every  business  man  in  the 
land  cry  out  for  a  stronger  government  ?  I 
do  not  say  that  every  infidel  is  a  commu- 
nist; but  I  do  say,  and  say  it  deliberately, 
that  from  the  British  line  to  the  waters 
of  the  gulf,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  in  every 
city  of  our  land,  the  avowed  communistic 
leaders  as  a  class  are  Godless  infidels.  By 
the  light  of  Pittsburgh's  conflagration  I  can 
see  Ingersoll's  legend,  "  Religion  is  supersti- 
tion," floating  in  the  night  over  the  heads  of 
a  frenzied  mob. 

And  now  consider  the  third  element  in  our 
trinity — Home. 

Government  and  law,  and  commerce  and 
trade,  are  seemingly  distinct  from  the  idea 


I  1 6  INGERSOLLISM: 


of  Home  ;  and  yet  all  lines  leading  from  all 
that  we  have  said  centre  in  Home.  Recol- 
lect that  the  Ingersoll  creed,  "  Happiness  in 
this  life,"  is  our  creed  too.  Yes,  we  dig 
canals,  hew  down  forests,  overset  our  prai- 
ries, build  cities,  operate  railroads,  network 
with  telegraph  wire  the  continent,  and  with 
an  Atlantic  cable  turn  the  ocean  depths  into 
a  whispering  gallery  for  the  nations — all  that 
we  may  be  happy.  But  who  ?  What  we? 
Infidelity  says  the  strong  and  self-reliant. 
It  must  of  necessity  say  the  strong  and  self- 
reliant.  Infidelity,  in  proclaiming  happiness, 
has  no  word  of  comfort  for  a  weak  old  man 
or  an  aged  woman. 

Infidelity  would  stagger  like  a  drunkard 
if  chosen  for  a  pall-bearer.  It  would  stam- 
mer like  a  witless  inmate  of  an  asylum  if 
asked  to  frame  an  epitaph  for  a  baby's  grave. 

For  neither  childhood  nor  motherhood,  for 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  \  ij 

neither  the  marriage  altar  nor  the  cradle,  for 
neither  old  age  nor  the  death  bed,  has  Infi- 
delity one  word  in  its  vaunted  creed  of  "  Hap- 
piness." Hence  I  say  Infidelity  can  claim  to 
furnish  "  Happiness  "  only  to  the  strong  and 
self-reliant  —  and  yet  that  claim  is  as  false  as 
a  new-coined  lie  ! 

Why,  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  has 
wrought  for  his  own  happiness  alone.  His 
household — be  it  composed  of  wife  and  child 
or  of  mother  or  sister,  in  some  form  or  other, 
be  the  roof-tree  his  own  or  a  borrowed  tree  — 
the  household  is  the  pivot  around  which  turns 
the  whole  existence  of  civilized  man.  Upon 
the  household  altar  he  lays  his  accumula- 
tions, and  the  happiness  of  the  household  is 
the  direct  object  of  civilized  man.  Through 
its  happiness  he  seeks  his.  A  nation  of 
happy  homes  is  the  brightest  dream  of  states- 
manship. 


I  I  8  INGERSOLLISM  : 


Am  I  indulging  in  sentiment,  or  am  I  not 
stating  a  plain  every-day  fact,  when  I  tell  you 
that  your  happiness  depends  in  a  full  degree 
upon  the  happiness  of  mother,  wife,  sister, 
child,  household  ?  Let  us  dwell  a  moment  on 
those  words,  Home  and  Household.  They  rep- 
resent and  encircle  nearly  all  there  is  of  life  to 
much  more  than  half  the  civilized  world. 
Look  behind  the  veil  which  that  word  Home 
lets  fall  every  morning  between  our  business 
world  and  the  household,  and  we  see  cluster- 
ing about  the  hearthstones  of  rich  and  poor, 
many  faithful  wives  and  mothers  and  cradles  ; 
many  millions  of  ungrown  men  and  women, 
unused  as  yet  to  the  world  and  its  devious 
ways  ;  millions  worn  by  labor  and  disease  ;  and 
millions  more  chilled  by  the  snow-drifts  of  age, 
waiting  for  the  end  of  life.  Of  such  are  our 
households,  and  for  these  households  civilized 
man  goes  forth  at  morn  and  returns  at  night. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.          \  19 

Now,  bear  in  mind  the  question  that  infi- 
delity presents  is  not,  Shall  we  give  to  these 
households  of  ours  the  hopes,  promises,  and 
influences  of  religion?  but  the  question  infi- 
delity presents  here,  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  is,  Shall  we  take  away 
from  our  homes,  from  our  ungrown  millions, 
from  our  aged  and  helpless  ones,  the  promises 
and  influences  of  religion?  Ingersoll  says- 
Aye,  aye  ;  let  fall  upon  every  household  in 
the  land,  upon  every  child  lisping  its  first 
prayer,  upon  every  marriage  altar,  upon  every 
death  bed,  and  upon  all  the  hallowed  associa- 
tions of  Home,  let  fall  the  black  pall  of  Athe- 
ism !  —  and  I  say,  he  surely  does  not  compre- 
hend the  effect  of  his  teachings  upon  human 
happiness,  or  his  cruelty  is  unutterable  and 
his  malevolence  unspeakable.  This  one  phase 
of  Ingersollism  is  enough  to  array  against  it 
all  the  forces  of  civilized  society.  When  I 


I  2 O  INGERSOLLISM ; 


think  of  the  bearings  his  teachings  have  upon 
our  hearthstone  life,  and  then  reflect  that  it  is 
a  man  with  cultured  brain  and  generous  and 
sympathetic  heart  who  in  the  name  of  human 
happiness  proclaims  these  teachings,  I  cannot 
but  conclude  that  either  he  plays  a  part,  trips 
in  his  speech,  or  is  upon  this  subject  stark 
mad. 

Take  one  of  a  thousand  things  we  think  of 
when  we  imagine  that  his  teachings  are,  in 
order  to  make  us  happier,  installed  at  our 
homes  in  lieu  of  religion's  hopes  and  prom- 
ises. Take  the  hour  —  and  to  every  house- 
hold such  hours  must  come  —  when  the 
shadow  of  death  lies  upon  the  hearthstone. 
In  that  hour,  go  home,  business  man,  seat 
yourself  beside  the  coffin  that  holds  your  treas- 
ure —  perchance  a  treasure  that  a  day  or  two 
before  hung  lovingly  about  your  knees  and 
sung  childish  songs,  or  perchance  a  treasure 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIE  IV.  121 


that  through  most  of  a  lifetime  had  been  not 
only  bone  and  flesh  of  your  bone  and  flesh, 
but  heart  of  your  very  heart  — seat  yourself 
beside  the  coffin  that  holds  that  treasure,  read 
Ingersoll's  lectures  there,  and  be  comforted  ! 
If  you  think  Ingersollism  means  happiness 
for  your  household,  go  and  gather  that  house- 
hold about  a  new-made  grave  that  holds  the 
family  jewel,  and  invoke  the  aid  of  Ingersoll- 
ism then  !  Why,  that  tenderness  of  feeling 
upon  which  the  household  is  based,  which 
makes  the  household  a  possibility,  and  with- 
out which  the  household  could  not  exist  as  a 
factor  in  society,  must  be  eradicated  from  the 
human  heart,  or  Ingersollism  forever  remain 
the  most  monstrous  of  parodies,  the  grimmest 
of  sarcasms,  when  named  as  a  rule  of  happi- 
ness in  the  household. 

These  considerations — waiving  a  thousand 
others  —  make   it  unnecessary  for   us  to  fur- 


I  2  2  INGERSOLLISM  : 


ther  pursue  the  relations  of  Ingersollism  to 
the  household. 

And  now,  then,  as  rational  men  we  have 
glanced  at  the  foundation  thought  upon  which 
all  religion  rests,  the  existence  of  God  ;  as 
moral  men  we  have  seen  the  God-given 
ideal  and  God-given  book ;  as  citizens  we 
have  seen  that  religion  is  one  of  the  surest 
props  of  civil  government  and  civil  law  ;  as 
business  men  we  have  seen  that  we  cannot 
dispense  with  its  influence  ;  and  as  social  be- 
ings we  have  found  it  a  household  blessing.  • 
The  question,  therefore,  with  which  I  began 
—Ought  we,  upon  the  score  of  political  econ- 
omy, to  keep  up  the  church?  —  is  answered 
now  by  another  and  a  greater  question:  How 
can  we,  as  citizens  and  as  business  men,  afford 
to  dispense  with  the  power  and  the  influence 
of  the  church  ?  To  this,  every  citizen  and 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW,  123 

business  man  must  answer  :  We  cannot  afford 
to  lose  the  church. 

I  have  said  to  you  that  we  so  often  find 
vice  wrapped  in  the  garb  of  religion  that  we 
are  coming  to  lend  willing  ears  to  attacks 
upon  Christianity.  This  leads  me  to  remark 
two  things  of  Ingersoll,  both  of  which  con- 
spire, in  my  judgment,  to  make  his  advent 
into  this  field  a  public  blessing.  First,  he 
forces  the  issue  between  Infidelity  and  Reli- 
gion. There  is  something  vague  and  intangi- 
ble in  the  underground  movements  of  our 
dilettante  moralists  and  sceptical  scientists. 
But  here  is  a  foeman  who  comes  squarely  up 
to  the  work  in  his  bold  assaults  upon  Reli- 
gion. As  a  man  of  the  world,  he  assails  the 
cherished  beliefs  of  millions  ;  and  men  of  the 
world  will  come  to  the  combat  he  invites. 
The  result  may  be  looked  for  without  fear  or 


I  2  4  INGERSOLLISM  : 


trembling.  The  truth  will  triumph,  and  in 
the  end  be  mightier  in  withstanding  a  new 
assault,  mightier  in  winning  a  new  victory, 
and  mightier  in  gaining  new  allies. 

The  second  and  greater  good  he  will  in- 
directly accomplish  will  be  in  preparing  the 
way  for  arraying  against  hypocrisy  in  the 
church  all  the  better  elements  of  society. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  performances  of 
so  many  professed  Christians  fall  so  far  below 
their  pretensions  to  superior  morality  that 
they  thereby  furnish  to  infidelity  its  most 
effective  though  most  illogical  weapons.  A 
kiss  and  a  betrayal  is  an  old  story  in  the 
history  of  Christianity.  It  is  none  the  less 
true  to-day  than  it  was  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago.  Hypocrisy  in  the  church  is  the 
Judas  Iscariotism  of  the  age.  We  have  seen 
how  intimately  all  our  interests  are  inter- 
woven  with  the  maintenance  of  true  religion. 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW,  125 

It  follows  that  our  interests  lie  in  the  encour- 
agement of  the  boldest  and  most  effective 
denunciation  of  that  hypocrisy.  Let  that 
hypocrisy  be  lashed  through  the  world  with  a 
whip  of  scorpions  ;  let  it  be  scourged  with 
the  contempt  of  every  honest  man  ;  let  it  be 
pointed  at  with  the  finger  of  scorn  in  every 
assemblage  of  men.  I  doubt  not  that  crusade 
is  coming.  What  will  be  the  result  ?  Its 
logical  end  must  be  the  checking  of  infidelity. 
While  it  is  one  thing  to  denounce  hypocrisy 
in  the  interest  of  infidelity,  and  another  to 
denounce  it  in  the  interest  of  Christianity, 
yet  in  the  end  the  result  must  be  the  same  — 
the  discomfiture  of  infidelity. 

I  am  no  dreamer  here.  I  look  ahead,  but 
not  with  my  eye  fixed  upon  some  Utopian 
condition  of  society  in  which  hypocrisy  and 
the  church  will  be  completely  and  forever 
divorced  ;  but  I  do  look  for  a  time  when*  the 


I  2  6  INGERSOLLISM  : 


influences  of  Christianity  which  now  pervade 
the  civilized  world  and  make  honest  and  just 
men  out  of  many  who  do  not  kneel  at  the 
altar  of  the  church,  shall,  in  the  interest  of 
that  church,  be  arrayed  against  the  Judas 
Iscariots  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Such  a 
crusade,  I  repeat,  will  prove  a  lasting  good, 
and  such  a  crusade,  I  repeat,  will  prove  the 
defeat  of  infidelity.  To  my  mind,  hypocrisy 
in  the  church  means  infidelity  in  the  church. 
I  do  not  say  that  infidels  outside  the  church 
are  hypocrites,  but  I  do  say  that  your  delib- 
erate hypocrite  inside  the  church  is  an  infidel. 
I  paraphrase  the  text,  and  say  it  is  as  true 
to-day  as  when  first  it  was  uttered,  that  the 
man  who  says  he  loves  his  church,  and  yet 
hates  or  cheats  his  brother,  is  a  liar.  Hold 
fast  to  the  thought,  then,  when  the  apostles 
of  infidelity  come  into  your  midst  and  de- 
nounce the  bad  men  inside  the  church  —  hold 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.  I2/ 

fast  to  the  thought  that  hypocrisy  in  the 
church  means  infidelity  in  the  church,  and 
then  let  all  the  people  say  God-speed  Inger- 
soll  in  scourging  his  own  disciples  ! 

Every  precept  of  reason  drives  us  irresisti- 
bly to  the  conclusion  that  the  man  who 
deliberately  uses  Christianity  for  no  4  other 
purpose  than  as  a  cloak  for  evil  deeds  is 
necessarily  an  unbeliever  in  disguise.  Let 
the  war  go  on,  then,  until  public  sentiment 
shall  brand  as  worse  than  a  thief  the  infidel 
who  steals  the  livery  of  Christianity,  and 
Ingersoll's  secret  worshippers  be  dragged  by 
the  force  of  public  opinion  from  the  sacred 
altars  they  disgrace.  It  is  idle  to  attempt  to 
palliate  the  charge  of  hypocrisy,  and  it  is  just 
as  idle  to  fear  that  the  charge  will  in  the  end 
cripple  the  church.  Our  men  of  affairs  will 
discern  the  false  from  the  true,  and  their  own 
interests  will  prevent  their  spurning  the 


I  2  8  INGERSOLLISM  ; 


genuine  because  of  the  counterfeit.  Infidel- 
ity cannot  prevail.  It  destroys  the  best 
standard  of  truth  and  right  in  the  moral 
world. 

Pfave  you  ever  thought  of  it  —  a  good  man 
is  to-day,  in  your  midst,  a  good  man  only  as 
he  approaches  the  standard  of  Bible-taught 
morality !  Grant  that  an  infidel  may  be  a 
good  man  too  —  and  many  of  them  are  exem- 
plary citizens  —  yet  it  can  come  about,  it 
does  come  about,  only  by  his  approaching  in 
action  a  standard  which  he  repudiates  in 
words. 

Ingersoll  personally  and  Ingersoll  theo- 
retically are  two  beings  as  wide  apart  as 
civilization  and  barbarism.  The  world  may 
well  believe  the  former  to  be  a  good  citizen, 
but  it  knows  the  latter  to  be  a  bad  citizen. 
One  of  the  most  notorious  outlaws  known  in 
the  criminal  annals  of  the  West,  Frank 


FROM  A   SECULAR  POINT  OF  VIEW.          129 

Rande,  stood  not  long  since  at  the  bars  of 
his  cell  in  St.  Louis,  the  very  impersonation 
of  every  crime  in  the  calendar,  and,  with  the 
air  of  a  braggart,'  said  to  preachers,  priests, 
and  policemen,  to  throngs  of  men  and  women, 
"  I  am  a  Bob  Ingersoll  man  ";  and  every  man 
and  woman  in  the  land  believed  him.  Had 
this  or  any  other  criminal  declared  himself  a 
religious  man,  every  infidel  in  the  land  would 
have  declared  the  man  a  hypocrite  and  his 
assertion  false.  It  is  no  answer  to  tell  us 
that  perhaps  in  the  cell  adjoining  his  lay  a 
man  who  for  five-and-twenty  years  was  prom- 
inent in  the  church,  and  was  at  last  detected 
in  a  series  of  gigantic  thefts  and  forgeries  ; 
for  let  him  but  step  to  his  prison  door  and 
say,  "  I  am  a  Christian  man,"  and  all  the 
civilized  world  cries  out,  "  That  man  is  a 
liar  ! " 

Remember   always    that  that   moral  sense 

9 


1 30  INGERSOLLISM. 


which  enables  you  to  discriminate  between  a 
good  man  who  calls  himself  a  Christian  and  a 
bad  man  who  calls  himself  a  Christian  is  a 
moral  sense  fostered  and  enlightened  by 
Christianity  itself,  and  so  far  as  you  possess 
that  moral  sense  you  possess  an  inestimable 
blessing.  It  is  the  spirit  of  patriotism  which 
enables  you  to  say  who  was  the,  patriot,  the 
immortal  Washington  or  Benedict  Arnold. 
As  citizens  loving  the  country  bequeathed  to 
us  by  the  men  and  spirit  of  '76,  as  business 
men  striving  for  success  by  honorable  en- 
deavor, as  men  who  love  home  and  house- 
hold, no  matter  whether  we  be  in  the  church 
or  out,  we  cannot  afford  to  let  the  infidelity 
of  Ingersoll  supplant  Christianity. 


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There  is  not  sunshine  enough,  nor  tenderness  enough,  away  from  Italy  and  France, 
to  produce  such  a  fragrant  flower  as  this.1' 

Of  "Marie11  the  New  York  Nation  says:  "An  unadorned  record,  told  in  the 
most  charming  way,  of  the  adventures  of  a  young  Russian  officer  who  sees  ser- 
vice against  some  rebels,  and  whose  betrothal  to  the  heroine  forms  the  romantic 
part  of  the  story.  There  is  plenty  of  incident,  and  the  narration  is  so  direct  and 
simple,  that  the  reader  becomes  at  once  conscious  of  a  master's  hand.11 

Of  "Madeleine11  the  New  York  Evening  Telegraph  says:  "More  than  thirty 
years  ago  it  received  the  honor  of  a  prize  from  the  French  Academy,  and  has 
since  almost  become  a  French  classic.  *  *  *  It  abounds  both  in  pathos  and 
wit.  It  is  a  wonder  that  a  tale  so  fresh,  so  sweet,  so  pure,  has  not  sooner  been 
introduced  to  the  English-speaking  public.1' 

Tales  of  the  Caravan,  Inn  and  Palace.  Translated 

from  the  German  of  WILLIAM  HAUFF  by  EDWARD  L.  STOWELL.     12mo,  397 
pages.    With  the  Original  Illustrations.    Price,  $1.25. 

"Very  entertaining,  and  marked  by  an  invention  that  was  apparently  inexhaust- 
ible."— Evening  Mail,  New  York. 

"They  have  been  translated  into  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  and  will  be  popu- 
lar as  long  as  there  are  children  to  read  them.11—  Transcript,  Boston. 

Tales  of  Ancient  Greece.   By  the  Rev.  sir  G.  w.  cox,  Bart, 

M.A.    Price,  $1.50, 

"It  is  doubtful  if  these  tales,  antedating  history  in  their  origin,  and  yet  fresh 
with  all  the  charms  of  youth  to  all  who  read  them  for  the  first  time,  were  ever 
before  represented  in  so  chaste  and  popular  a  form.11  —  Golden  Rule,  Boston. 

A  Short  History  of  France;  For  Young  People.  By 

Miss  E.  S.  KIRKLAND.    Price,  $1.50. 

"Miss  Kirkland  has  composed  her  'Short  History  of  France1  in  the  way  in 
which  a  history  for  young  people  ought  to  be  written;  that  is,  she  has  aimed  to 
present  a  consecutive  and  agreeable  story,  from  which  the  reader  can  not  only 
learn  the  names  of  kings  and  the  succession  of  events,  but  can  also  receive  a 
vivid  and  permanent  impression  as  to  the  character,  modes  of  life,  and  the  spirit 
of  the  different  periods.1'—  The  Nation,  New  York. 

Choice    Readings.    By  Prof.  R.  L.  CUMNOCK.    Price,  $1.75. 

"Among  the  multitude  of  books  issued  for  the  same  purpose  during  the  past 
ten  years,  we  kno\v  cf  none  so  complete  in  all  respects,  and  so  well  fitted  to  the 
needs  of  the  elocutionist  as  the  volume  before  us.11  —  Boston  Transcript. 

Sold  by  booksellers,  or  mailed,  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  publishers, 

JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  CO.,  117  &  119  State  St.,  CHICAGO. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
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Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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RtCD  SJD 


DEC  2 

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270ct'58PT§ 

REC'D 

OCT25 

17Nir'59WJ 


